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ao?35. 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/scandinavianartOOIaur 


This  series  of  Scandinavian  Monographs  is  published 
by  the  American-Scandinavian  Foundation  to  promote 
the  study  of  Scandinavian  history  and  culture,  in  the 
belief  that  true  knowledge  of  the  North  will  contrib- 
ute to  the  common  profit  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 


SCANDINAVIAN  MONOGRAPHS 
VOLUME  V 

SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


THIS  VOLUME  IS  ENDOWED 

BY  MR.  C.  HENRY  SMITH 

OF  SAN  FRANCISCO 


Midsummer  Night  at  Riddarholmen,  by  Eugen  Jansson 
Owned  by  Thorsten  Laurin,  Stockholm 


Scandinavian  Art 


ILLUSTRATED 


CARL  LAURIN 

EMIL  HANNOVER 

JENS  THUS 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

CHRISTIAN  BRINTON 


NEW  YORK 

THE  AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN  FOUNDATION 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY   MILFORD 
OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  THE  AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN  FOUNDATION 


C.  S.  PETERSON,  THE  REGAN  PRINTING  HOUSE,  CHICAGO,  U.  S.  A. 


PUBLISHER'S  NOTE 

For  this,  the  first  comprehensive  treatment  of  Scandinavian  art  in 
any  language,  the  American-Scandinavian  Foundation  is  fundamentally 
indebted  to  Mr.  C.  Henry  Smith,  of  San  Francisco,  whose  munificent 
gift  provided  for  the  completed  manuscripts  and  the  engravings.    The 
volume  has  been  the  labor  of  several  years  on  the  part  of  the  eminent 
authors,  the  translators,  and  editors.     The  survey  of  Swedish  art  has 
been  written  by  Carl  G.   Laurin,  author  of  Konsthistoria,  Sweden 
Through  the  Artist's  Eye,  etc.     The  account  of  Danish  art  in  the 
nineteenth  century  is  by  Emil  Hannover,   Director  of   the  Danish 
IVIuseum  of  Industrial  Art.    The  development  of  modern  Norwegian 
art  has  been   traced  by  Jens  Thiis,  Director  of  the  National  Gal- 
lery in  Christiania.     The  appearance  of  the   work  has  been  some- 
what delayed  because  of  the  illness  of  Mr.  Thiis,  who  was  prevented 
from  revising  the  last  part  of  his  manuscript.     One  of  the  trans- 
lators, Mr.  Frederic  Schenck,  of  Harvard  University,  who  rendered 
the  Danish  section  into  English,  did  not  live  to  see  his  work  in  press. 
The  Swedish  section  has  been  translated  by  Adolph   Burnett  Ben- 
son, assistant  professor  of  Scandinavian  at  Yale  University,  and  the 
Noi-w^egian  manuscript  by  Sigurd  Bernhard  Hustvedt,  assistant  pro- 
fessor of  English  at  the  University  of  California,  Southern  Branch. 
The  Swedish  plates  have  been  engraved  by  P.  A.  Norstedt  och  Soner 
of  Stockholm,  the  Danish  and  Norwegian  plates  by  the  Photochrome 
Engraving  Company  of  New  York.    The  task  of  collating  the  manu- 
scripts, editing  the  translations,  and  placing  the  illustrations,  as  well 
as  proof-reading,  has  been  executed  by  Hanna  Astrup  Larsen,  editor 
of  the  American-Scandinavian  Review.    Throughout  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  book  the  Committee  on  Publications  consulted  Dr.  Chris- 
tian Brinton,  the  well  known  art  critic,  who  will  be  remembered  in 
this  connection  especially  for  his  various  essays  on  Scandinavian  art  and 
for  his  catalogue  of  the  Scandinavian  Exhibition  of  1912-1913. 

The  Committee  on  Publications. 


CONTENTS 

Introduction   1 1 

A  Survey  of  Swedish  Art 

I.     The   Ecclesiastical   Period 37 

II.      The  Castles  of  the  Vasas.     After  the  Thirty  Years' 

War '. 5H 

III.  The  Carolinian  Age.     The  Ro\al  Palace 73 

IV.  French  and  English  Influences  in  the  Gustavian  Age  87 
V.     Sergei 106 

VI.     The  Transition   Period 114 

VII.     The  Diisseldorf  Influence.     The  Historical  Painters  128 
VIII.     The    Opponents.      New    Tendencies    in    Swedish 

Painting 151 

IX.      New  Tendencies  in  Swedish  Painting  (Continued)  185 

X.     Modern  Plastic  and  Decorative  Art 207 

XI.     Architecture  at  the  Opening  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury   223 

Danish  Art  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

I.     The  Period  Before  Eckersberg 241 

II.     Eckersberg 247 

III.  Eckersberg's   School 255 

IV.  Marstrand   270 

V.      The   Europeans 280 

VI.     The  Nationalists 293 

VII.     The  Coloristic  Awakening 315 

VIII.     The  Quest  of  Style  and  Recent  Tendencies 359 

IX.     Sculpture   393 

X.     Architecture    420 

Modern  Norwegian  Art 

I.     The     Nineteenth     Century     Pioneers,     Dahl    and 

Fearnley 43  7 

II.     Tidemand  and  Gude.     Diisseldorf  Technique  and 

Norwegian    Subjects 454 

III.  The  Munich  School 484 

IV.  The  Beginning  of  French  Influence 497 

V.     The    Naturalists :   Thaulow,    Krohg,    and   Weren- 

skiold.     Gerhard  Munthe 507 

VI.      Other  Painters  of  the  Seventies  and  Eighties.  .  .  .  542 

VII.     The  Intermediate  Generation 560 

VIII.     Munch   580 

IX.     The  Present  Generation  of  Painters 592 

X.     Sculpture  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 613 


INTRODUCTION 

BY 
CHRISTIAN  BRINTON,  M.A.,  Litt.  D. 


INTRODUCTION 

By  Christian  Brinton 

I 

WHILE  it  may  appear  extraneous  to  apply  to  aes- 
thetic considerations  the  rigid  determinism  exempli- 
fied by  Hippolyte  Taine,  yet  it  is  obvious  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  land  and  its  people  is  essential  to  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  art  of  a  given  country.  You  cannot  ap- 
preciate the  significance  of  the  Italian  Primitives  unless  you 
know  something  of  the  serene  beauty  of  the  Tuscan  or  Um- 
brian  hillside  as  seen  in  the  conventionalized  backgrounds  of 
the  early  masters.  And  similarly  you  will  fail  to  grasp  the 
spirit  of  Northern  painting  if  you  are  not  in  some  degree  fa- 
miliar with  the  conformation  of  the  country  and  the  composi- 
tion of  the  light  that  slants  obliquely  upon  shimmering  fjord 
or  sparse  upland  pasture.  There  can  be  no  question  concern- 
ing the  fundamental  differences  between  the  art  of  the 
North  and  the  art  of  the  South.  The  one  is  septentrional^ 
the  other  meridional,  with  all  the  distinction  implies, 
and  it  should  be  apparent  to  any  observant  person  that  these 
divergences  are  in  large  part  due  to  circumstances  of  race, 
clime,  and  climate. 

Granted  a  specific  ethnic  heritage  and  a  special  natural 
environment,  it  is  Interesting  to  note  how  certain  nations 
react  to  their  surroundings.  The  art  of  the  Italians,  follow- 
ing that  of  the  Greeks,  Is  formal  and  balanced.  It  reveals 
a  regard  for  proportion,  a  genius  for  co-ordination,  not  seen 
elsewhere  in  the  pageant  of  pictorial  expression.  Italian 
painting  is  not  primarily  a  record  of  external  observation, 
of  nature  found  ready  at  hand.     Its  spirit  Is  philosophic.     It 

11 


12  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

is  deeply  imbued  with  thought  and  reason.  Little  windows 
scrupulously  spaced  look  out  upon  vistas  where  everything 
is  held  in  equilibrium,  upon  a  miniature  universe  subjected 
to  an  inner  sense  of  symmetry.  There  is  in  Italian  painting, 
from  the  fresh-tinted  frescoes  of  Giotto  to  the  flowing  har- 
monies of  Tiepolo,  no  marked  departure  from  this  essential 
principle.  And  while  color  plays  an  important  role  in  these 
compositions,  notably  in  the  work  of  the  Venetians,  it 
rarely  attains  ascendency  over  line  and  form. 

That  which,  without  risk  of  misapprehension,  may  be 
termed  the  scholastic  element  in  Italian  art  assumes,  with 
the  work  of  the  Frenchmen,  a  more  scientific  application. 
The  chief  contribution  made  by  latter-day  France  to  the  art 
of  painting  has  been  the  development  of  the  theory  and  prac- 
tice of  what  is  known  as  impressionism.  While  there  have 
been  reactions  against  impressionism,  they  have  proved  noth- 
ing more  than  tributes  to  a  method  without  which  modern  art 
could  scarcely  have  come  into  existence.  The  entire  pan- 
orama of  contemporary  landscape  painting  bases  itself  upon 
impressionism.  We  no  longer,  as  with  the  Italians,  gaze 
through  narrow  little  panels  upon  a  remote,  ordered  world. 
We  are  at  last  out  of  doors  flooded  with  sunshine.  We  were 
brought  there  by  means  of  the  patient  analysis  of  light  and 
the  application  of  certain  definite  scientific  principles  to  the 
problem  of  atmospheric  painting. 

If  the  art  of  the  Italians  is  philosophic,  and  that  of  the 
Frenchmen,  especially  Manet,  Monet,  and  their  successors, 
illumined  by  scientific  clairvoyance,  it  is  but  reasonable  to 
infer  that  the  work  of  the  Scandinavians  should  betray 
characteristics  equally  distinctive.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
Northern  peninsula,  cut-off  from  the  main_current_of  Con- 
jinental  cultural  development,  and  living  in  close  community 
with  nature,  have  evolved  an  aesthetic  expression  that  may 
be  termed  indigenous.  In  painting,  sculpture,  and  archi- 
tecture similar  conditions  have  produced  similar  results. 
While  it  is  manifest  that  the  art  of  Sweden,  Denmark,  and 
Norway  is  by  no  means  identical,  it  nevertheless  shares  cer- 
tain specific  affiliations.    The  differences  are  those  of  degree. 


IM  KODUCriON  13 

not  ol   kind.      riiis  art  is  an  expression  that  lorcij^ncrs  in- 
stantly recognize  as  septentrional. 

Scholastic  with  the  Italian,  scientific  with  the  I^renchnian, 
aesthetic  utterance  with  the  Scandina\ians  tlisi)lavs  a  lyric 
quality  such  as  one  encounters  in  the  art  of  no  other  country. 
In  its  finer  essence  the  pictorial  production  of  the  Northern 
peoples  is  lyrical.  These  paintings  are  songs  in  color,  these 
artists  poets  in  line  and  tone.  That  this  should  be  the  case 
there  need  be  scant  wonder,  for  here  again  have  certain 
causes  produced  their  appointed  results.  Determinism  in  I 
matters  artistic  is  in  fact  as  firmly  established  as  is  determin- 
ism in  the  field  of  physiology  or  psychology. 

The  farther  one  journeys  from  Greece  and  Rome,  the 
less  Is  one  enslaved  by  the  fetish  of  form,  by  that  academic       •     "lUAM. 
tyranny  which  is  the  enemy  of  Individual  expression.     The  u 

relative  remoteness  of  the   Scandinavian  artist   from   such  F^oJ)^ 

sources   of   enervation   has   proved   his   salvation.      Living  ^"'^^^''^^ ^.^ja^^ 
alone  or  In  more  or  less  Isolated  surroundings,  there  has   ^"^ 
sprung  up  between  the  Northern  painter  and  his  environ- 
ment a  kind  of  pregnant  Intimacy.     He  has  been  compelled 
to  seek  inspiration  In  his  feelings  and  fancies,  his  reactions 
to  nature  and  natural  scene.     And  the  particular  character 
of  the  scenes  with  which  he  Is  most  familiar  constitutes  not 
the  least  of  those  silent  yet  eloquent  forces  that  have  condi- 
tioned his  aesthetic  consciousness.     Serenity  and  precision ' 
may  flourish  in  the  South,  among  the  luminous  isles  of  the 
.Tlgean  or  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  but  the      0 
North  is  the  home  of  mystery,  of  poetic  suggestion,  and  that 
psychic  restlessness  which  you  encounter  alike  on  the  can- 
vases of  Edvard  Munch  or  in  the  pages  of  August  Strindberg. 
The  exalted,  at  times  frenzied,  struggle  for  freedom  which 
confronts  you  In  the  work  of  these  men  amounts  Indeed  to  a 
phase  of  eleutheromania.  "" 

The  first  thing  that  impresses  the  student  of  Scandinavian    ' 
art  Is  the  infrequency  with  which  one  meets  representations 
of  the  human  figure.     Man  is  here  not  the  center  of  interest 
as  is  the  case  with  the  Greeks  and  Latins.     It  is  nature  and 
natural  phenomena  that  hold  the  place  of  honor.     The  art    . 


14  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

I  of  the  North  is  a  chaste  art.     It  betrays  an  impersonality,  a 
I  cosmic  anonymity  far  removed  from  the  petty  or  trivial. 
'  Deriving  its  stimulus  from  direct  contact  with  the  out  of 
doors,  it  dedicates  its  energies  to  a  species  of  pantheistic 
'  nature  worship.     The  deity  which  presides  over  Northern 
art  is  not  fashioned  in  the  image  of  humanity.     It  is  com- 
pounded of  that  elemental  rhythm  which  models  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  tints  the  far  reaches  of  the  sky,  ruffles  the  waves, 
and  stirs  the  foliage  of  birch  or  pine. 
,      That  the  language  of  this  art  may  possess  general  appeal, 
that   it   may   attain    that   universality    of    application   with 
which  the  nations  of  the  South  have  endowed  their  concep- 
tion of  the  human  form  has  been  the  aim,  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious, of  the  Northern  artist.     In  the  following  pages  you 
will   be   enabled    to   judge   how    far   this    result   has   been 
achieved.      Whatever  the   verdict,   there   is   one   fact  that 
stands  plainly  forth,  namely,  the  fact  that  the  Scandinavian 
artist,  once  he  finds  himself,  seldom  lacks  the  tenacity  to  be 
Rational  In  theme  and  treatment.     "Forward  and  home," 
was  the  inspiring  slogan  of  that  courageous  coterie  which  in 
the  middle  eighties  of  the  last  century  forsook  Munich  and 
Paris  to  return  to  the  Northland,  and  happily,  "forward  and 
home"  has  since  been  their  watchword. 

The  picture  of  Scandinavian  art  you  will  gather  from  the 
ensuing  pages  is  a  threefold  presentment.  You  have  here- 
with unveiled  before  you  the  artistic  features  of  Sweden, 
Denmark,  and  Norway.  Each  section  has  been  traced  by  a 
practised  hand.  While  the  touch  varies  a  trifle,  the  result 
will  not  fail  to  fuse  itself  Into  a  composite  portrait  of  the 
aesthetic  physiognomy  of  the  Scandinavian  people.  It  is  but 
natural  that  the  art  of  painting  should  receive  major  con- 
sideration. Aside  from  certain  monuments  of  historical  inter- 
est, aiThlte£turejsjmm]g;aTa^^  and  sculp- 
ture Is  not  as  yet  widely  cultivated.  The  art  of  Scandinavia 
Is  polojristic.  While  it  took  these  fresh-vlsloned  Northern- 
ers some  time  to  outgrow  the  sombre  tonality  of  museum  and 
gallery,  they  eventually  recaptured  their  rightful  heritage 
of  clear,  tonic  color  and  high-keyed  harmony.   It  was  Indeed 


INTRODUCriON  15 

not   for  n;ui<2;li(   that   they  cnjoyctl   in    Ii-aiicc  the  chstinction 
of  being  known  as  la  belle  ecole  blonde. 

I'he  story  of  Swedish  art  as  outhned  by  Mr.  Carl  (J. 
Lauriti  forms  a  full-length  portrait.  Ihc  hackgroiind  is  ^^^JiSif^i^ 
amply  lillctl  in,  and  none  of  the  important  accents  is  missing.  -- — " 
Protected  by  the  Court  and  patronized  by  the  nobility,  the 
artistic  taste  of  Sweden  was  from  the  beginning  ecjectic. 
Brilliant,  responsive,  and  full  of  rapidly  assimilated  impres- 
sions from  the  outside  world,  Swedish  painting  of  the 
eighteenth  century  is  replete  with  the  artificial  grace  of  the 
reign  of  rococo.  Names  such  as  Gustav  Lundberg,  Alex- 
ander Roslin,  Nils  Lafrensen  the  younger,  and  Peter  Adolf 
Hall  were  less  known  in  Stockholm  than  in  Paris,  where  they 
contributed  their  quota  to  the  delicate  yet  imperishable 
bloom  of  a  deathless  age.  While  there  was  sounder  stuff 
in  their  predecessor,  the  Hamburg-born  David  Ehrenstrahl, 
they  typify  the  auspicious  Inception  of  aji  art  that  has  always 
appealed  to  the  aristocratic  classes,  and  which  has  been  prac- 
tlsed~with  distinction  by  more  than  one  representative  of 
the  royal  family. 

The  baroque  poraiposity  of  Ehrenstrahl  and  the  rococo 
radiance  of  Lundberg  and  his  associates  were  succeeded  by 
the  pseudo-classicism  which  dates  from  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, and  by  the  extravagant  though  sincere  nature  worship 
of  which  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau  was  the  fervid  apostle. 
Wertmiiller's  Danae,  In  the  National  Museum,  and  the 
poetic  landscapes  of  Ellas  Martin,  revealing  manifest  traces 
of  the  Influence  of  Gainsborough  and  the  English  elegiac 
school,  are  indicative  of  the  tendencies  of  the  period.  The 
English  affiliation  established  by  Martin  was  strengthened 
by  Karl  Fredrik  von  Breda,  who  studied  with  Reynolds. 
Breda  returned  to  Stockholm  with  a  richer  tonality,  a  more 
expressive  line,  and  an  emotional  warmth  that  foreshadow 
the  dawn  of  romanticism.  His  likenesses  of  the  prominent 
personages  of  the  day  furthermore  possess  a  sense  of  style 
and  a  talent  for  character  delineation  that  entitle  them  to 
high  rank  in  the  category  of  Peninsular  portraiture. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  one  outstanding  figure  in  the 


16  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  century  art  of  Sweden  was 
not  a  painter,  but  the.  sculptor  Johan  Tobias  Sergei.  Swedish 
painting  has  in  fact  not  yet  produced  its  Sergei.  The  model- 
ler of  the  Faun,  in  the  National  Museum,  was  a  man  of  ex- 
traordinary endowment  and  rare  force  of  character.  Too 
robust  a  soul  to  succumb  to  the  emasculated  classicism  of  the 
day,  he  worked  out  his  artistic  destiny  in  typically  independ- 
ent fashion.  Older  than  Canova  or  Thorvaldsen,  he  never- 
theless remained  younger  in  spirit,  in  vision,  and  in  his 
veracious  rendering  of  form  during  a  period  when  plastic 
expression  was  notably  deficient  in  vigor  and  sincerity. 

Midway  between  the  older  and  newer  schools  lingers  the 
refined,  mobile  silhouette  of  Egron  Lundgren,  the  Swedish 
Constantin  Guys,  who  like  Guys,  was  attracted  by  English 
life,  social  and  military,  and  who  did  some  of  his  best  work 
while  in  the  British  capital.  Lundgren  was  a  cosmopolitan 
product.  With  his  responsive  line  and  delicate  eye  for  color, 
he  was  a  posthumous  child  of  the  age  of  rococo.  When  the 
rest  of  the  world  was  turning  to  historical  subject,  drab  peas- 
ant theme,  or  landscape  darkened  by  heavy  shadows  from 
the  venerable  Fontainebleau  oaks,  Lundgren's  vision 
remained  vivacious  and  contemporary.  He  possessed  the 
true  aristocratic  instinct  for  style,  and  nothing  In  Swedish  art 
compares  In  grace  and  sensitive  charm  with  these  spirited 
water-color  sketches. 

While  Egron  Lundgren  was  transcribing  with  sparkling 
verity  the  pageant  of  mid-century  life  In  London  or  Luck- 
now,  in  Paris  or  Madrid,  the  balance  of  Sweden  was,  as  has 
been  Intimated,  engaged  in  the  sober  task  of  creating  a 
national  school  of  art.  The  vogue  of  frigid  neo-classiclst 
and  false  romanticist  was  succeeded  by  the  genuine  outdoor 
sentiment  of  such  pioneer  landscape  painters  as  Edvard 
Bergh  and  Alfred  Wahlberg.  The  reposeful  vision  of  the 
nature  intimlsts  was  supplemented  by  the  story-telling  genre 
of  August  Jernberg  and  Ferdinand  Fagerlln,  and  the  earnest 
attempt  to  translate  native  myth  and  fable  Into  paint  was 
exemplified  In  the  canvases  of  Blommer  and  Malmstrom. 
The  most  Imposing  talent  of  the  day  was,  however,  Johan 


INTRODUCnON  17 

r'rcclrik  I  l()ckcii.  'riiouj^Ii  iiiihiiccl  wllli  llic  trc;iclc  tonality 
of  the  romanticists,  I  lockcrt  nianagctl  to  express  himself  with 
vigor  and  conviction.  His  large,  ettectivc  canvas  entitled 
The  Palace  Fire,  1697,  is  an  ei^och-making  work  in  the 
history  of  Northern  art. 

The  foregoing  men  constitute  certain  important  high- 
lights in  a  general  survey  of  Swedish  painting.  For  its  defin- 
ite sequence  you  have  the  discriminating  exposition  of  Mr. 
Laurin,  who  follows  its  progress  from  its  brilliant,  sporadic 
beginnings  to  the  substantial  achievement  of  the  contem- 
porary school.  IHs^nly  within  the  present  generation  that 
Swedish  art  has  come  into  its  own.  With  the  return  from 
France,  from  Paris,  and  from  Grez,  of  the  intrepid  band 
who  resolutely  opposed  the  Academy,  and  the  formation,  in 
1886,  of  the  society  known  as  the  Konstnarsforbundet, 
Swedish  art  assumes  its  rightful  position  in  the  forward 
march  of  European  taste.  The  influence  of  Diisseldorf, 
which  had  been  superseded  by  that  of  Munich  and  Paris, 
gave  place  to  a  passionate  love  of  native  scene  and  char- 
acter, and  a  determination  to  become  national  alike  in  theme 
and  treatment.  With  eyes  for  the  first  time  open  to  the 
beauty  of  the  homeland,  and  a  technique  fortified  by  famil- 
iarity with  the  message  of  latter-day  naturalism  and  impres- 
sionism, the  Swedish  painter  was  not  long  in  giving  proof  of 
his  new-found  power. 

In  the  vanguard  of  the  modern  movement  looms  Ernst 
Josephson,  equipped  with  a  masterly  breadth  of  draughts- 
manship and  a  Manet-like  faculty  of  placing  the  figure  upon 
canvas.  By  the  side  of  Josephson  stands  the  dextrous,  cos- 
mopolitan Anders  Zorn,  who  brings  to  the  altar  of  art  every 
gift  save  the  gift  of  soul.  And  along  with  Zorn  come  Lars- 
son  and  Liljefors,  names  familiar  to  lovers  of  Swedish  art 
the  world  over.  The  preceding  men  are  transitional  figures, 
whereas  with  the  rigorous  Nordstrom,  the  sober-minded 
Wilhelmson,  and  notably  with  Hesselbom,  Fjeestad,  Kreu- 
ger,  Prince  Eugen,  and  Eugen  Jansson  we  are  confronted 
with  tendencies  more  stylistic  than  naturalistic  or  impres- 
sionistic.    The  art  of  these  painters  and  their  younger  col- 


18  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

leagues,  such  as  Axel  Torneman,  Is  subjective  and  synthetic 
in  spirit.  It  is  not  representation  they  seek  butjie£Dration, 
and  their  work  is  notable  for  its  vigor  of  outline  and  appro- 
priate employment  of  color  spaces.  Beginning  as  modest 
lyrists,  they  have  managed  to  endow  their  creations  with 
monumental  significance. 

The  contribution  of  this  particular  group,  which  is  the 
most  homogeneous  unit  in  contemporary  Swedish  art,  brings 
us  to  the  debatable  threshold  of  expressionism,  which  has 
already  been  crossed  by  Isaac  Griinewald,  Gosta  Sandels, 
Einar  John,  Leander  Engstrom,  and  kindred  apostles  of  out 
and  out  modernism.  The  older  men  belong  to  a  definite 
school,  the  men  of  the  middle  period  participated  in  certain 
well  defined  movements,  but  these  latest  recruits  to  the  cause 
give  free  range  to  a  luxuriant  individualism.  The  extreme 
manifestations  of  their  art  will  doubtless,  however,  be  modi- 
fied by  the  benign  caress  of  time,  for  there  is  nothing 
like  time  to  ameloriate  the  rigors  of  radicalism  whether 
aesthetic  or  social. 

The  leading  charactertistic  of  this  work,  be  it  conservative 
or  experimental.  Is  its  sense  of  nationalism.  Its  fidelity  to 
native  theme.  Each  of  these  artists  has  his  favorite  sketch- 
ing ground  which  he  makes  indisputably  his  own.  Liljefors 
finds  Inspiration  in  the  forest  life  of  Uppland  or  among  the 
skerries  of  the  Smaland  coast.  Nordstrom  evolves  an  aus- 
tere, stone-age  mysticism  out  of  the  Iron  mountain  ranges 
of  Lapland  and  the  shadowed  hillsides  of  Bohuslan,  while 
upon  the  blue  waters  of  Stockholm  harbor,  fringed  with  Its 
crescent  of  amber  lights,  Eugen  Jansson  breathes  a  luminous 
lyricism  that  for  sheer  poetic  intensity  is  without  parallel  In 
the  annals  of  contemporary  painting.  Nor  is  all  modern 
Swedish  art  serious-minded,  for  with  the  drawings  of  Albert 
Engstrom,  the  characterful  statuettes  of  "Doderhultaren," 
and  the  diverting  evocations  of  Ossian  Elgstrom  and  John 
Bauer  we  are  led  into  a  world  where  actuality  gives  place  to 
humorous  exaggeration  or  the  touch  of  creative  fantasy. 

Whether  In  the  stillness  of  snow-crusted  forest  with 
Fjaestad  and  Schultzberg,  among  the  Lofoten  Islands  with 


INrRODLlC'I  ION  19 

Anna  Bobcr^-,  or  on  tlic  terrace  ol  I'rincc  luifj;cn's  \  ilia  at 
Valclcinarsiulde,  you  instinctively  feel  that  each  ol  these 
painters  approaches  his  theme  with  sincerity  and  conviction. 
The  particuhir  is  here  not  infrequently  inlused  with  a  sig- 
nificance that  is  general,  and  that  which  was  local  becomes 
typical.  With  the  clarification  of  the  modern  palette  Swed- 
ish painting  has  taken  on  fresh  chromatic  brilliancy.  Fhis 
art  is  more  Sweciish  than  was  formerly  the  case.  The 
national  race  consciousness  has  grown  stronger  and  more 
eloquent  alike  of  the  outward  vesture  of  nature  and  of  that 
inner  vision  which  fashions  all  things  to  its  appointed 
purpose. 

It  is  unnecessary  in  any  degree  to  anticipate  the  able 
exposition  of  Mr.  Laurin.  His  account  of  the  development 
of  Swedish  architecture  from  the  ecclesiastical  period  to  the 
latest  creations  of  Ferdinand  Boberg,  Gustav  Clason,  Rag- 
nar  Ostberg,  Carl  Westman,  and  others  is  notably  instruc- 
tive. His  survey  of  Swedish  plastic  art,  which  carries  us 
from  the  Giant  Finn  of  Lund  Cathedral  to  the  neo-renais- 
sanee  yet  modernistic  compositions  of  Christian  Eriksson 
and  the  varied  inspiration  of  Carl  Milles,  is  of  equal  merit 
and  interest.  You  gather  in  fact  from  Mr.  Laurin's  text  a 
general  impression  of  flexibility  and  creative  fecundity  that 
augurs  well  for  the  future  of  Swedish  art. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  note  by  way  of  recapitulation, 
that  art  In  Sweden  did  not  long  remain  the  exclusive  property 
of  the  upper  classes.  It  was  not  restricted  to  park  and  pal- 
ace, to  the  aristocratic  confines  of  Gripsholm  or  Drottning- 
holm,  but,  reinforced  by  a  basic  peasant  virility,  It  became  a 
thing  of  the  people  and  for  the  people.  Carrying  its  bright- 
ness into  cottage  and  home,  bearing  its  message  from  Malmo 
to  far  off  KIruna  beyond  the  arctic  circle,  it  chants  the  vis- 
ible glory  of  Svea.  At  first  a  plaything  and  apanage  of  roy- 
alty and  a  powerful  ring  of  nobles — of  the  Hedvlg  Eleon- 
oras  and  Axel  Oxenstlernas  of  Swedish  history — it  finally 
won  universal  suffrage. 


20  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

II 

There  could  be  no  stronger  contrast  than  that  afforded 
by  a  comparison  between  the  art  of  eclectic,  cosmopolitan 
Sweden  and  the  home-loving  production  of  the  Dane.  If 
the  art  of  Sweden  is  extensive,  that  of  Denmark  represents 
an  intensive  development  in  close  conformity  with  the  polit- 
ical and  social  traditions  of  the  country.  The  lyric  quality 
already  noted  in  the  art  of  Sweden  is  also  present  in  that  of 
Denmark,  only  it  is  not  a  poignant  cry  of  passion  or  disillu- 
sion. It  more  often  takes  the  form  of  gentle  mysticism  or 
the  simple  charm  of  a  fireside  lullaby.  Just  as  you  find  In 
Danish  literature  no  Verner  von  Heldenstam  or  no  Oscar 
Levertin,  so  you  encounter  In  contemporary  Danish  painting 
no  Eugen  Jansson  or  no  Karl  Nordstrom,  the  Integrity  of 
whose  vision  Is  tinged  by  a  deep-seated  pessimism,  a  touch  of 
cosmic  austerity. 

As  you  turn  to  Director  Hannover's  sympathetic  presen- 
tation of  Danish  art  you  will  not  fail  to  gain  an  Impression 
of  homogeneous  development.  Danish  art  Is  Indigenous. 
The  treasures  of  early  Danish  painting  and  sculpture  did 
not  arrive  in  stately  fashion  from  foreign  lands  as  was  the 
case  with  Gustav  Ill's  collection  of  statuary.  They  sprang 
from  the  happy  hearts  and  healthy  sensibilities  of  a  people 
who  had  no  restless  visions  of  grandeur  and  world  conquest, 
a  people  fervently  attached  to  their  serene  little  country. 
The  Danes  are  addicted  to  an  amused  scepticism  when  it 
comes  to  matters  beyond  their  Immediate  range  of  sympathy. 
The  tendency  was  manifest  at  an  early  stage  of  their  cultural 
development,  and  It  has  doubtless  served  to  protect  them 
from  follies  and  exaggerations  in  various  fields  of  activity. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  Danish  art  attained 
maturity  without  assistance  from  the  outside  world.  Den- 
mark, like  Sweden,  sent  abroad,  chiefly  to  France,  for  her 
first  architects  and  sculptors,  while  not  a  few  of  her  painters 
journeyed  to  Rome  or  elsewhere  In  order  to  acquire  that 
broader  experience  which  was  deemed  essential  to  a  proper 
practice  of  their  profession.  The  fact  nevertheless  remains 
that  these  digressions  did  not  materially  alter  the  course  of 


TNIRODUCTION  21 

Danish  art.  As  Director  Hannover  observes,  there  was  no 
genuinely  Danish  painting  before  Eckersberg,  and  Eckers- 
berg  himself  had  the  sagacity  not  to  be  adversely  influenced 
either  by  David  in  Paris  or  the  specious  neo-antique  espoused 
by  his  countryman  Thorvaldsen  in  Rome.  Saving  Pilo  and 
Carstens  but  few  of  these  men  renounced  their  national 
affiliations.  And  as  you  study  Constantin  Hansen's  portrait 
group  depicting  seven  leading  Danish  artists,  all  former 
pupils  of  Eckersberg,  foregathered  in  Hansen's  Roman 
studio,  you  spontaneously  assume  that  they  are  thinking  and 
speaking  of  that  endearing  country  to  which  they  were 
shortly  to  return  and  whose  more  familiar  aspects  they  were 
destined  to  celebrate. 

Their  preceptor,  Christoffer  Vilhelm  Eckersberg,  called 
the  father  of  Danish  painting,  just  as  the  Hamburger  Ehren- 
strahl  was  known  as  the  father  of  Swedish  painting,  and  the 
Norwegian,  Johan  Christian  Dahl,  was  later  to  become 
recognized  as  the  parent  of  Norwegian  painting,  was  a  re- 
markably endowed  artist.  Temporarily  Interested  In  Italian 
subject,  he  found  his  true  sphere  of  activity  In  depicting  local 
theme — landscape,  marines,  and  views  of  ships  and  shipping 
In  the  vicinity  of  Copenhagen.  His  gallery  of  portraits,  In- 
cluding that  of  Thorvaldsen  In  the  Kunstakademlet,  Is  also 
of  particular  Importance.  Everything  he  left  In  fact  pos- 
sesses a  tranquil  verity  of  vision  and  statement  that  no 
change  of  taste  can  ever  discount. 

You  do  not  need.  In  a  preliminary  survey  of  early  nine- 
teenth century  Danish  painting,  to  go  beyond  the  three 
typical  figures  of  Eckersberg,  Kobke,  and  Marstrand.  Each 
In  his  way  reflects  a  distinct  phase  of  the  national  temper- 
ament, and  between  them  they  offer  a  complete  picture  of 
native  life  and  scene.  At  a  period  when  the  rest  of  Europe 
was  absorbed  In  the  cultivation  of  a  passionless  pseudo- 
classicism,  the  clear-eyed  professor  who  dwelt  In  modest 
quarters  at  the  Academy  In  Kongens  Nytorv  was  content 
to  transcribe  reality  with  patient  exactitude.  It  was  upon  a 
foundation  of  substantial  objectivity  that  he  based  the  struc- 
ture of  modern  Danish  art.     Following  him  comes  Christen 


22  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Schjellerup  Kobke,  who  supplemented  the  constrained  vision 
and  handling  of  the  older  men  with  a  fresh,  sunlit  beauty,  a 
brighter  tonality,  and  a  freer  technique.  The  figure,  not 
landscape,  was  Marstrand's  preoccupation,  and  he  in  turn 
discarded  the  arid  formalism  of  Abildgaard  and  Jens  Juel 
and  brought  to  Danish  painting  a  humor,  a  grasp  of  char- 
acter, and  a  breadth  of  style  that  proved  an  infinite  boon 
to  the  art  of  the  day. 

The  successive  steps  in  the  evolution  of  Danish  painting 
from  the  constriction  of  its  early  stages  to  the  freedom  of  its 
new-found  worship  of  light,  color,  and  form  are  too  com- 
prehensively indicated  by  Director  Hannover  to  require 
more  than  passing  mention.  Following  the  eclipse  of  clas- 
sicism and  the  tinsel  romanticism  of  the  Diisseldorf  period, 
came  the  ringing  appeal  to  the  nationalist  consciousness 
enunciated  by  Hoyen,  whose  propensity  for  aesthetic  preach- 
ment even  rivalled  that  of  Ruskin.  This  movement,  which 
paved  the  way  for  Dalsgaard,  Exner,  Vermehren  and  similar 
exponents  of  peasant  genre,  failed  to  achieve  significant  re- 
sults for  the  reason  that  its  devotees  were  lacking  in  technical 
proficiency.  It  was,  in  fact,  not  until  the  advent  of  the  Paris 
trained  talents  that  Danish  painting  was  able  to  overcome 
that  professional  provinciality  which  had  been  its  handicap 
from  the  outset. 

If  the  school  of  Eckersberg  taught  the  Danish  artist  what 
to  paint,  it  was  the  school  of  Skagen  that  taught  him  how  to 
paint.  Naturalistic  at  first,  and  by  turns  impressionistic  and 
luministic,  it  was  the  flexible,  acquisitive  Peter  Severin 
Kroyer  who  was  the  inspiration  of  the  little  colony  of  artists 
who  set  up  their  easels  along  the  sunlit  dunes  of  the  Skaw 
and  for  the  first  time  let  into  Danish  painting  the  magic  of 
light  and  air.  More  potent  as  an  influence  than  as  an  endur- 
ing master,  Kroyer,  with  his  cosmopolitan  cachet  and 
dazzling  manipulative  dexterity,  was  the  dynamic  force  of 
the  movement.  Whether  in  his  vine-screened  cottage  at 
Skagen  or  in  his  sumptuously  appointed  studio  in  Bredgade, 
where  used  to  take  place  those  memorable  evening  musicales, 
he  was  always  to  the  fore.     Red-faced  and  white  flanneled. 


INTRODUCnON  23 

he  acted  as  the  hcacon,  the  Skagcn  Tyr,  of  the  group,  and 
once  he  pointed  the  way,  the  rest  proceeded  to  flood  Danish 
art,  indoor  as  well  as  out,  with  the  same  tonic  radiance. 

A  few  paces  from  Kroyer's  studio  in  Bredgade  came  to 
h\'c  a  man  of  different  stamp,  not  a  versatile  talent,  eager  to 
attack  any  pictorial  prohlem,  hut  a  modest,  retiring  soul  who 
shrank  from  the  glare  of  day,  who  preferred  the  dimness  of 
sparely  furnished  rooms  or  the  mystic  film  of  twilight  on 
grey-green  roof  or  dark  castle  wall.  In  Vilhelm  Hammers- 
hoi  Denmark  produced  an  apostle  of  aesthetic  quietism 
beside  whom  even  Whistler  seems  restless  and  sophisticated. 
A  product  of  neurasthenia  this  tremulous,  penetrant  work 
may  be,  yet  it  bids  fair  to  survive  the  legacy  of  many  a  more 
emphatic  talent.  Along  with  Hammershoi  should  be  men- 
tioned Ejnar  Nielsen,  whose  severe,  achromatic  vision, 
somewhat  indebted  to  the  Italian  Primitives  and  the  pallid 
serenity  of  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  possesses  a  lineal  purity  and 
a  tonal  restraint  that  lend  It  unique  significance. 

The  subdued,  grepuscular  panels  of  Vilhelm  Hammers- 
hoi, and  the  not  Infrequently  pathological  Inspiration  of 
Ejnar  Nielsen,  constitute  an  Intermezzo  In  the  forward 
progress  of  Danish  painting,  which,  having  acquired  light 
through  the  efforts  of  Kroyer,  next  proceeded  to  add  color 
through  the  chromatic  opulence  of  Zahrtmann,  and  form 
through  the  vigorous  plasticity  of  WlHumsen.  One  of  the 
most  original  figures  in  Danish  art,  and  the  possessor  of  a 
richly  subjective  color  sense,  Kristlan  Zahrtmann  Is  also 
notable  as  a  helpful  and  Inspiring  preceptor.  Zahrtmann's 
Skole  which  has  fostered  such  genuine  talents  as  Johannes 
Larsen,  Peter  Hansen,  and  Fritz  Syberg,  has  exercised  a 
fruitful  Influence  upon  current  Danish  and  also  Norwegian 
painting.  It  has  taught  the  lesson  of  nationalism  through 
the  development  of  a  more  conscious  sense  of  individuality 
and  a  more  definitely  localized  sphere  of  Interest. 

In  the  matter  of  individuality  there  Is,  however,  no  figure 
In  Danish  art  whether  in  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  or 
decorative  craftsmanship  comparable  with  Jens  Ferdinand 
Willumsen.     The  entire  struggle  for  freedom  from  conven- 


24  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

tion  and  from  the  stuplfying  effect  of  academic  somnolence 
centers  in  the  fecund  personality  of  Willumsen.  Everything 
Willumsen  touches  acquires  the  precious  boon  of  life  and 
form.  A  protean  genius,  he  has  attacked  in  succession  all 
phases  of  current  artistic  activity.  Nor  has  he  failed  to 
leave  his  impress  whether  it  be  upon  the  starkly  simplified 
facade  of  the  Frie  Udstilling  building  or  a  bit  of  polychrome 
pottery.  Combative  as  well  as  creative,  Willumsen  waged  a 
valiant  battle  for  aesthetic  liberty,  and  it  is  mainly  through 
his  efforts  that  the  younger  men  of  to-day  owe  their  compar- 
ative immunity  at  the  hands  of  a  none  too  reverent  public. 

The  recent  developments  of  contemporary  Danish  art 
synchronize  with  similar  manifestations  in  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way. The  movement  has  been  away  from  naturalism  and 
impressionism  and  in  the  direction  of  decorative  synthesis. 
The  amazing  fertility  of  the  late  Thorvald  BindesboU,  the 
Danish  William  Morris,  and  the  pre-Raphaelite  inspiration 
of  the  brothers  Skovgaard  have  aided  in  the  fostering  of  a 
new  group.  A  richer  tonality,  a  more  opulent  feeling  for 
mass,  and  a  frank  desire  to  combine  beauty  and  utility  are 
among  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  younger  generation 
of  painters,  sculptors,  architects,  and  designers.  A  species 
of  new  romanticism,  an  awakening  to  the  subjective  and 
stylistic  possibilities  of  color  and  form  has  superceded  the 
objectivity  of  the  older  men. 

Danish  art  of  to-day  has  gone  a  long  way  from  the  simple 
verity  of  Eckersberg  and  Kobke,  and  the  patient  observation 
of  Lauritz  Ring,  who  still  resides  In  his  flower-fronted  cot- 
tage at  Roskllde,  a  picturesque  reminder  of  the  past.  Con- 
temporary Danish  painting  even  possesses  Its  expressionists 
and  synchronlsts — some  designate  them  as  dysmorphists — 
who  periodically  enliven  the  exhibitions  of  Den  Frie  and  the 
newer  secessionist  organization  known  as  Gronningen.  Yet 
despite  its  advanced  pretentions  the  work  of  such  men  as 
Harald  Glerslng,  Edvard  Wele,  Sigurd  Swane,  Aksel  Jor- 
gensen,  William  Scharff  and  their  colleagues  remains  essen- 
tially Danish.  It  Is  Danish  just  as  the  art  of  Willumsen,  the 
aesthetic  anarch  of  a  decade  or  more  ago,  was  reluctantly 


IN'rRODUCriON  25 

iicknovvlcdgotl  (o  he  Danisli.  Thiit  which  imlccd  wc  first  note 
in  the  production  of  these  innovators  are  the  departures 
from  precedent,  the  exaggerations.  On  subsequent  acquaint- 
ance we  perceive  that  the  difference  between  them  and  their 
predecessors  has  been  all  too  slight. 

It  Is  the  art  briefly  outlined  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs, 
together  with  the  architecture  of  Martin  Nyrop,  H,  B. 
Storck,  anci  Hans  Holm,  and  the  sculpture  of  Willumsen, 
Freund,  Hansen-Jacobsen,  Kai  Nielsen,  and  the  Iceland- 
born  Einar  Jonsson,  that  reflect  the  present-day  character  of 
Danish  aesthetic  development.  The  illuminating  presenta- 
tion of  the  subject  by  Director  Hannover  is  so  comprehen- 
sive that  it  merely  remains  to  summarize  one's  general  im- 
pressions. Danish  art,  like  the  Danish  landscape  or  Dan- 
ish literature,  possesses  the  faculty  of  not  striving  to  trans- 
cend certain  definite  limitations.  Dramatic  intensity  is 
jibsent.  Yet  while  It  Is  true  that  Danish  letters  boasts  no 
Strlndberg,  no  von  Heldenstam,  and  no  Levertin,  It  may  well 
claim  Its  Herman  Bang  or  Jacobsen  whose  work,  suffused 
with  tender  mysticism  and  lightened  by  flashes  of  humor,  is 
typical  of  the  modern  Danish  spirit. 

And  so  It  Is  in  painting.  When  Kobke  depicts  a  boat- 
landing  party  with  the  Dannebrog  fluttering  on  the  fresh 
morning  breeze,  when  Lundbye  paints  a  wide-horlzoned 
stretch  of  his  beloved  Sjgelland,  when  Kyhn  devotes  himself 
to  views  of  Jutland,  or  Skovgaard  senior  masses  in  monu- 
mental forms  the  beeches  of  Dyrehaven,  we  have  something 
exclusively  Danish.  The  same  is  true  of  Ring,  Syberg,  and 
Phillpsen  In  their  records  of  rural  life  and  scene,  nor  Is  It 
otherwise  with  Julius  Paulsen  In  his  delicate  landscape  noc- 
turnes or  VIggo  Johansen  In  his  particular  province,  for 
who  has  pictured  the  intimacies  of  domestic  existence  with 
more  sympathetic  Insight  than  Johansen.  There  is  no  pre- 
tense here.  It  is  all  consistent  and  contained.  We  are  far 
from  the  Salon  machine  concocted  to  astound  a  jaded 
public. 

Danish  art  of  to-day,  having  overcome  certain  early  disa- 
bilities, reflects  a  wholesome  equability  of  temper  and  a  gen- 


26  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

erous  measure  of  material  well-being.  This  art  is  rich  in 
tone  and  texture  and  discreetly  sensuous  in  spirit.  The  splen- 
did assembly  hall  of  Martin  Nyrop's  Raadhus  radiates  light 
and  color,  while  Willumsen's  playful  putti  disport  them- 
selves with  true  abandon.  Midway  between  the  brilliant 
eclecticism  and  lyric  exaltation  of  Sweden,  and  the  stormy, 
os^ianesque  grandeur  of  Norway,  stands  the  instinctive 
moderation,  the  natural  amenity  of  Denmark.  Having 
achieved  a  definite  emotional  and  social  stability,  the  Dane 
can  well  afford  to  remain  himself,  and  to  smile  indulgently 
upon  a  stressful,  unquiet  world. 

Ill 

Entering  the  arena  of  art  at  a  later  date  than  Swede  or 
Dane,  the  Norwegian  possessed  the  priceless  assets  of 
youth,  abounding  energy,  and  freedom  from  precedent  that 
enabled  him  to  express  himself  with  unhampered  vigor  and 
directness.  The  first  thing  that  impresses  one  on  viewing  a 
representative  collection  of  Norwegian  painting,  sculpture, 
or  decorative  art  is  its  aspect  of  freshness  and  general  ab- 
sence of  fatigue.  You  may  note  a  certain  overconfidence,  but 
you  will  rarely  encounter  echoes  of  empty  traditionalism  or 
a  point  of  view  that  savors  of  academic  anaemia. 

The  history  of  modern  Norwegian  art  covers  but  a  scant 
century  of  consecutive  effort,  yet  within  that  period  the  Nor- 
wegian painter  has  nevertheless  been  able  to  place  himself 
on  even  terms  not  alone  with  his  Peninsular  neighbors,  but 
fully  abreast  of  the  broader  currents  of  Continental  artistic 
development.  The  realization  that  he  started  later,  and 
consequently  had  more  to  achieve,  proved  an  incentive  rather 
than  a  detriment.  And  in  order  to  diminish  all  disparity  the 
Norwegian  merely  had  to  draw  upon  an  unexploited  wealth 
of  vitality,  aesthetic  and  physical. 

The  text  of  Director  Thiis  which  you  will  herewith  peruse 
is  a  model  of  constructive  exposition.  Working  in  a  more 
or  less  virgin  field,  a  field  that  he  himself  has  largely  cre- 
ated, Director  Thiis  is  In  a  position  to  contribute  pioneer 
criticism,  and  of  this  opportunity  he  takes  full  advantage. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

The  profile  of  the  period  preceding  the  dcchiration  of 
national  independence  in  1814  is  bound  to  appear  more  or 
less  sketchy  on  account  of  the  paucity  of  data  at  hand,  yet 
e\'cn  this  relatively  remote  epoch  in  the  history  of  Nor- 
wegian art  has  its  well  defined  tendencies  and  its  outstand- 
ing personalities.  Though  for  the  most  part  of  anonymous 
authorship,  the  early  ecclesiastical  or  secular  sculpture,  paint- 
ing, and  handicraftsmanship  display  characteristics  that 
were  destined  to  reappear  at  a  subsequent  date.  New  art  is 
invariably  conditioned  by  latent  aesthetic  instincts.  The 
decorative  fantasies  of  Gerhard  Munthe  are  based  upon 
century-old  saga  motifs;  and  it  is  by  no  means  improbable 
that  the  hypersensitiveness  of  Edvard  Munch,  that  feeling 
of  cosmic  fear  which  pervades  his  work,  harks  back  to  the 
primal  awe  of  primitive  man  in  the  presence  of  the  insolu- 
able  enigma  of  nature. 

Out  of  this  somewhat  dusky  half-light  emerges  the  rugged 
silhouette  of  Magnus  Berg,  a  richly  endowed  craftsman  who 
passed  most  of  his  life  in  Copenhagen,  and  left  a  legacy  of 
deftly  carved  ivory  groups  displaying  marked  baroque  influ- 
ence. It  is  Director  Thiis's  placing  In  relief  of  such  figures  as 
Berg,  and  rescuing  from  obscurity  such  comparatively  un- 
known men  as  Mathlas  Stoltenberg,  the  provincial  Nord- 
land  portrait  painter,  and  Lars  Hertervlg,  an  imaginative 
nature  mystic  who  recalls  our  own  Ryder  or  Blakelock,  that 
lends  his  text  Its  particular  value.  The  Gudes  and  Tide- 
mands,  like  the  Thorvaldsens,  have  been  too  persistently 
exploited.  The  public  deserves  to  know  something  of  less 
conventional  types,  and  no  one  presents  their  respective 
cases  with  more  authority  than  the  scholarly,  militant 
Director  of  the  National  Gallery  of  Norway.  He  is  amply 
qualified  for  such  a  task,  having  already  done  much  to  force 
acceptance  of  Munch  and  to  win  proper  recognition  for  the 
Norwegian  plastic  genius  Gustav  Vigeland. 

It  Is  In  fact  this  same  militancy  of  spirit  that  distinguishes 
Norwegian  art  and  letters  In  general.  The  leading  figures 
stand  starkly  forth  as  though  rough-hewn  from  the  native 
rock.    And  to  those  given  to  Indulging  in  symbols,  the  view 


28  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

of  Dahl's  storm-tossed  birch  tree  buffeted  by  the  wind  yet 
clinging  to  its  stony  base  may  well  seem  typical  of  the  entire 
course  of  Norwegian  art.  Cast  in  heroic  mould,  these  men 
have  forged  their  way  to  the  front  through  sheer  power  and 
gersistence.  There  is  not,  even  to  this  day,  in  Norway  such 
a  thing  as  an  academy  of  art,  royal  or  national,  and  technical 
instruction  has  necessarily  been  difficult  to  obtain.  The 
pioneers  were  largely  self-taught.  Berg  was  a  simple  rustic 
who  began  life  as  a  woodcarver.  Dahl  was  the  son  of  a 
humble  fisherman  and  ferryman  of  Bergen.  These  men 
were  not  protected  by  kings  and  nobles  as  were  the  Swedes, 
nor  were  they  reared  amid  the  security  of  a  solidly  estab- 
lished social  order  as  were  the  Danes.  Almost  without 
exception  they  fought  their  battles  single-handed,  and  many 
of  them  are  still  indulging  in  this  same  salutary  pastime. 

Such  conditions  have  not  been  without  effect  upon  the 
development  of  the  arts  in  Norway.  You  meet  in  this  work 
a  degree  of  individualism  not  apparent  in  the  production  of 
Sweden  or  Denmark.  There  are  of  course  marked  affin- 
ities between  one  artist  and  another,  or  one  group  of  artists 
and  another,  yet  each  man  stands  firmly  upon  his  own  feet. 
The  art  of  Norway  does  not  fall  into  the  category  of  a 
sharply  defined  school,  as  for  example  is  the  case  with  the 
art  of  Holland  or  of  Denmark.  Its  progress  is  uneven.  It 
does  not  proceed  upon  its  course  with  placid  uniformity.  It 
advances  intermittently,  not  to  say  explosively.  There  was 
something  meteor-like  in  the  rapid  rise  to  fame  and  Euro- 
pean position  of  Johan  Christian  Dahl,  the  father  of  con- 
temporary Norwegian  painting,  and  on  more  than  one 
occasion  the  world  has  been  startled  by  the  sudden  eruption 
of  a  fresh-born  Norwegian  genius  of  letters  or  art. 

When  Dahl  eventually  located  in  Dresden  as  professor 
of  landscape  at  the  Kunstakademie,  pallid  neo-classicism  had 
been  superseded  by  a  romantic  nature  poetry  and  a  taste  for 
theatric  peasant  genre.  While  it  was  impossible  even  for 
this  sturdy  son  of  West  Coast  fisherfolk  to  escape  the  pre- 
tense of  the  period,  it  is  to  his  credit  that,  during  long  resi- 
dence  abroad,   he   never   ceased   to   remain   Norwegian   at 


IN  rkODUCI  ION  29 

lic;irt.  1  \c  (V\(\  not  clc\()tc  his  energies  to  ihe  portrayal  of 
moonlit  ruins  on  the  Rhine  or  the  fateful  Lorelei.  Jivery 
summer  he  journeyetl  homeward  where  he  passed  the  time 
sketching  among  the  fjords  antl  mountains  of  his  native 
land.  While  his  work  remained  romantic,  it  never  lost  con- 
tact with  reality.  It  pulsates  with  dramatic  passion,  with 
genuine  bardic  power,  yet  it  is  based  upon  actual  observa- 
tion. And  what  is  true  of  Dahl  is  even  more  true  of  his  suc- 
cessor Fearnley,  and  of  the  deeply  lyrical  Cappelen  who  died 
while  still  in  his  twenties. 

From  the  outset  these  men  displayed  a  vigorous  intensity 
of  statement  that  to  this  day  has  remained  typical  of  Nor- 
wegian painting.  Even  the  panoramic  Gude  and  the  popu- 
lar exponent  of  peasant  life,  Adolf  Tidemand,  had  their 
moments  of  genume  veracity.  And  once  the  specious  glam- 
our of  poetic  sentiment  had  been  dispelled,  and  the  Nor- 
wegian painter  was  permitted  to  see  nature  In  her  true 
aspect,  this  faculty  came  more  prominently  to  the  fore.  The 
older  men  down  to  the  time  of  Amaldus  Nielsen  and  Ludvlg 
Munthe  studied  In  Diisseldorf.  The  succeeding  generation 
drifted  to  Munich  and  Paris.  In  due  course  the  pictorial 
Insincerity  of  Schlrmer  and  Lessing  and  the  anecdotal  inan- 
ities of  Knaus  and  Vautier  vanished  with  the  Increasing 
vogue  of  an  art  based  upon  a  closer  study  of  nature  and  a 
more  accurate  comprehension  of  existing  visual  phenomena. 
Teutonic  romanticism  gave  place  to  Gallic  rationalism,  to  an 
art  that  endeavored  to  place  the  eye  upon  a  parity  with  the 
mind,  to  supplement  sentiment  and  Imagination  with  first- 
hand observation. 

Erik  Werensklold  was  the  earliest  Norwegian  painter  to 
sense  the  impending  change  and  adjust  himself  to  the  new 
order  of  things.  In  1879  he  saw  the  memorable  French 
exhibition  In  Munich,  and  straightway  wrote  to  his  col- 
leagues that  the  Bavarian  capital  was  dead  as  an  art  center. 
With  ready  receptivity  he  realized  that  the  forward  move- 
ment pointed  away  from  the  studio  claptrap  of  PUoty  and 
Lofftz  toward  the  sturdy  terrestrlalism  of  Gustave  Courbet 
and  the  fresh  graphic  vision  of  Edouard  Manet,    His  advice 


30  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

was  fortunately  followed,  and  between  1880  and  1883  most 
of  the  progressive  Norwegian  painters  foregathered  in 
Paris  to  admire  and  emulate  the  grey-green  harmonies  of 
Cazin,  the  sober  peasant  vision  of  Bastien-Lepage,  or  the 
rude  proletarian  touch  of  Roll.  Eilif  Peterssen,  Hans 
Heyerdahl,  Werenskiold  himself,  Fredrik  CoUett,  Frits 
Thaulow,  and  Edvard  Diriks  formed  the  vanguard  of  the 
new  movement.  And  one  by  one  they  returned  to  their 
native  country  bearing  with  them  the  inspiring  message  that 
precipitated  a  veritable  revolution  in  the  province  of  pic- 
torial representation. 

The  Norwegians  espoused  the  gospel  of  naturalism  in  all 
sincerity,  each  pursuing  his  pathway  with  independence  of 
spirit.  That  same  tendency  which  in  Sweden  initiated  a 
school  of  synthetic  landscape  interpreters,  and  in  Denmark 
fostered  a  genuine  decorative  renaissance,  aroused  in  Nor- 
way a  different  set  of  reactions.  In  particular  it  gave  birth  to 
a  group  afflicted  with  social  and  pathological  sympathies.  In 
literature  this  coterie  included  Hans  Jasger,  Arne  Garborg, 
Gunnar  Heiberg,  and  Knut  Hamsun,  and  in  art  found  its 
leading  exponents  in  Christian  Krohg  and  Edvard  Munch. 
Robust  and  defiantly  objective  looms  the  massive  form  of 
Krohg,  while  in  the  shadowland  of  an  acute  subjectivity 
lingers  the  solitary,  enigmatic  apparition  of  Munch. 

Though  Krohg,  the  epic  apostle  of  Zolaism  in  paint,  has 
undergone  numerous  vicissitudes,  his  militancy  of  temper 
and  mental  vigor  remain  unimpaired.  Seated  in  the  garden 
of  his  fjord-side  home  at  Drobak,  grizzley  and  primeval,  he 
seems  to  epitomize  the  stressful  epoch  of  which,  with  pen 
as  well  as  brush,  he  was  for  years  the  living  incarnation. 
The  complexion  of  Norwegian  art  has  altered  during  the 
last  decade.  Of  the  actual  pioneers  several  have  passed 
away.  Yet  Diriks  has  not  entirely  deserted  Drobak  for 
Paris,  while  upon  the  pine-crested  heights  of  Lysaker,  over- 
looking the  upper  reaches  of  the  Christiania  fjord,  still  reside 
Eilif  Peterssen,  Gerhard  Munthe,  and  Erik  Werenskiold 
whose  talented  son  Dagfin  carries  promisingly  forward  the 
paternal  tradition. 


IN  I'RODUC  IION  31 

I'lic  rigors  of  naturalism  were  followed  by  the  delicate 
irradiance  of  iinpressionisni,  which  in  due  course  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  new  romantic  spirit  of  which  the  late  I  lalfdan 
Egedius  was  the  initial  exponent.  Many  of  the  younger 
men,  the  generation  of  the  nineties,  including  Erichsen, 
Folkestad,  Kavll,  Onsager,  and  Wold-Torne  received  their 
professional  training  in  Copenhagen,  mainly  under  Zahrt- 
mann,  and  their  work  consequently  reflects  not  a  little  of  the 
stylistic  and  coloristic  traditions  of  the  contemporary  Danish 
school.  Holmboe,  a  somewhat  older  man.  Is  also  allied  to 
the  decorative  romanticists,  while  Harald  Sohlberg  adds  to 
the  main  characteristics  of  the  movement  a  visual  restraint 
and  a  concentrated  emotional  Intensity  that  entitle  him  to 
a  place  apart  from  the  rest  of  his  colleagues. 

In  a  measure  a  product  of  the  naturalism  of  the  early 
and  middle  eighties  of  the  past  century,  and  also  represent- 
ing a  sharp  reaction  against  naturalistic  tendencies,  stands 
Edvard  Munch,  the  unchallenged  head  of  the  modern 
movement  in  Scandinavian  art.  The  enthusiasm  with  which 
Director  Thiis  pens  his  apologia  for  Munch  is  by  no  means 
misplaced,  though  it  Is  safe  to  say  that  Munch's  position  in 
European  painting  and  graphic  art  is  not  yet  adequately 
appreciated  In  his  own  country.  Edvard  Munch  is  a  born 
pictorial  fantast.  From  the  recesses  of  a  responsive  con- 
sciousness he  evokes  images  plastic  and  graphic  the  like  of 
which  cannot  be  met  outside  the  pages  of  Poe  and  Baudelaire 
or  the  portfolios  of  Fellclen  Rops  and  Henri  de  Toulouse- 
Lautrec.  The  inspiration  of  Munch  is  not  however  South- 
ern, it  Is  purely  Nordic,  You  may  possibly  recall  the  Berlin 
of  the  early  nineties  on  viewing  some  of  the  initial  graphic 
studies,  but  never  the  Boulevards.  The  significance  of  this 
art  lies  In  its  affinity,  Its  power  of  identification,  with  the  vis- 
ible universe.  In  these  broadly  brushed  canvases  and  strongly 
accented  lithographs  we  are  made  to  wander  by  dark  waters, 
under  pale,  far  stars  and  over  mountains  toward  the  rim 
of  the  world  where  we  stand  transfixed  with  tragic  appre- 
hension. 

It  is  part  of  Munch's  deep-rooted  pessimism  that  In  his 


32  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

work  he  should  reduce  the  human  equation  to  mhior  propor- 
tions when  brought  face  to  face  with  the  inscrutable  physi- 
ognomy of  nature.  Alike  in  his  paintings,  mural  decora- 
tions, or  in  the  field  of  graphic  expression  Edvard  Munch 
remains  the  commanding  figure  in  Northern  art.  He  is  the 
apotheosis  of  that  tendency  which  is  farthest  removed 
from  the  fixed  form  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins.  The  potency 
of  this  art  lies  not  in  its  capacity  for  definite  realization  but 
in  its  magic  power  of  suggestion.  We  have  here  moved 
beyond  the  radiance  of  the  meridional  sun  into  sub-arctic 
twilight  where  fantasy  wins  its  silent,  almost  imperceptible 
victory  over  fact. 

Under  the  asgis  of  Edvard  Munch  have  sprung  into  con- 
sciousness a  number  of  artists  more  or  less  directly  influ- 
enced by  him,  though  revealing  the  approved  Norwegian 
capacity  for  independent  expression.  They  share  his  free- 
dom from  the  tyranny  of  form,  his  suggestive  coloration, 
and  his  sympathy  with  the  modern  movement  whether  in 
Scandinavia  or  on  the  Continent.  Of  this  group  Henrik 
Tund  and  Ludvig  Karsten  are  the  most  prominent  repre- 
sentatives, while  Per  Krohg,  the  progressive  son  of  a  father 
who  in  his  day  was  equally  advanced,  carries  the  programme 
of  modernism  still  farther  along  its  vaguely  charted  path- 
way. One  and  all  they  are  effective  draughtsmen  and  exu- 
berant colorlsts.  Displaying  familiarity  with  Manet, 
Cezanne,  van  Gogh,  Henri-Matisse,  and  Picasso,  they  con- 
stitute the  advance  guard  of  Norwegian  painting. 

The  complexion  of  Norwegian  art  in  fact  changes  with  re- 
freshing rapidity,  for  whereas  formerly  we  felt  in  the  work 
of  Fearnley  and  Cappelen  the  beating  of  the  wings  of  roman- 
tic aspiration,  to-day  we  no  less  distinctly  sense  the  stir  of  aes- 
thetic radicalism.  A  scant  decade  ago  the  outstanding  figures, 
apart  from  Munch,  were  Lund,  with  his  swift  psychological 
insight  and  Manet-like  saliency  of  stroke,  and  Karsten,  whose 
canvases  revealed  a  chromatic  vigor  and  a  freedom  of 
draughtsmanship  new  to  their  generation.  In  19 14,  how- 
ever, occurred  the  debut  of  a  new  group  known  as  De  f  jorten, 
among  whom  were  Sorensen,  Heiberg,  Per  Deberitz,  Thyge- 


INTRODUCriON  33 

sen,  and  J\c\()Kl.  All  arc,  of  course,  ardent  modernists,  and 
during  the  past  hall  dozen  years  not  a  lew  ol  them  have 
found  their  iinal  emancipation  in  abstract  formulae.  For 
the  rigorous  realism  of  the  eighties,  the  neo-romanticism  of 
the  nineties,  the  delicate  shimmer  of  impressionism,  and  the 
intervening  manifestations  of  a  questing  creative  conscious- 
ness have  meanwhile  merged  into  that  broad  category  which 
may  best  be  characterized  as  expressionism. 

You  see  the  work  of  these  artists  in  the  current  exhibi- 
tions, and  you  meet  the  men  themselves,  now  in  the  cafe  of 
the  Grand  Hotel,  now  in  Copenhagen,  or  next  in  Paris  where 
they  sip  their  liqueurs  or  modest  bocs  at  the  Cafe  de  la 
Regence,  just  as  the  former  generation  of  Northern  artists 
used  to  frequent  the  Cafe  de  I'Hermitage.  What  they  have 
to  say  about,  and  in,  paint  they  say  with  assurance.  So  much 
downright,  unspoiled  capacity  for  pictorial  expression  do 
they  display,  that  one  Is  constrained  to  conclude  that  it  may 
be  just  as  well,  after  all,  that  Norway  should  still  boast  no 
official  academy  of  art.  For,  had  it  such  an  institution.  It  Is 
by  no  means  certain  that  these  truculent  young  radicals  would 
condescend  to  darken  Its  threshold. 

We  shall  leave  to  Director  Thiis  the  congenial  task  of 
tracing  the  artistic  physiognomy  of  Norway's  most  distin- 
guished sculptor,  Gustav  Vigeland.  His  predecessors  in 
the  field,  prominent  among  whom  were  Julius  Middelthun, 
Brynjulf  Bergslien,  and  the  stressful  and  by  no  means  subtle 
Stephan  Sinding,  are  likewise  thrown  Into  characteristic  relief 
upon  Director  Thiis's  pages.  The  story  of  Norwegian  sculp- 
ture is  brief,  as  is  also  that  of  Norwegian  architecture.  It  Is  in 
painting,  and  in  the  minor  handicrafts,  particularly  weaving, 
that  the  greatest  progress  has  been  made.  And  here  again 
you  will  note  the  same  strength  of  color  that  you  find  on 
canvas.  For  while  the  Swede  is  notable  for  the  gift  of 
decorative  synthesis,  and  the. Dane  exhibits  a  highly  devel- 
oped sense  of  form,  color  is  the  chief  contribution  of  the 
Norwegian. 

In  surveying  Scandinavian  art  as  presented  throughout 
the    ensuing    pages,    you    will    readily    discover    the    lyric 


34  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

mood  already  mentioned,  for  it  is  manifest  almost  every- 
where in  the  production  of  these  Northmen  to  whom  emotion 
has  not  infrequently  proved  of  more  significance  than 
mere  substance  or  form.  Detached,  and  in  a  measure  iso- 
lated though  the  artistic  activity  of  these  peoples  has  perforce 
been,  their  contribution  in  certain  instances  transcends  that 
which  is  merely  local  in  appeal.  With  the  work  of  such  men 
as  Sergei,  Thorvaldsen,  and  the  troubled,  aspiring  Munch, 
this  art  attains  true  universality  of  utterance.  And  yet,  while 
such  manifestations  constitute  its  moments  of  supreme  ex- 
pression, it  everywhere  commands  respect  through  its  genuine 
creative  fecundity,  and  above  all  through  its  virile,  organic 
nationalism.  It  is  in  brief  by  bringing  forth  the  native  rich- 
ness of  spirit,  and  not  relying  upon  atelier  and  academy,  that 
Scandinavian  art  has  won  its  present  position  in  the  larger 
pageant  of  pictorial  and  plastic  aspiration. 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 

By 
CARL   G.   LAURIN 

Author  of  Konsthistoria,  Sweden  Through  The 
Artist's  Eye,  Etc. 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 

By  Carl  G.  Laurin 

I 

THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  PERIOD 

NUMEROUS  relics  of  ancient  times  bear  witness  to 
the  high  peasant  culture  possessed  by  Sweden  thou- 
sands of  years  before  the  Christian  Era.  The  finely- 
shaped  "swor3s  and  the  spiral  ornaments  on  buckles  and 
shield-plates  of  the  Bronze  Age  reveal  the  presence  of  artis- 
tic taste  and  skilled  craftsmanship  in  our  country  before  the 
Persians  encountered  the  Greeks.  At  a  much  later  period, 
the  Germanic  peoples,  under  impulses  from  classic  civiliza- 
tion, evolved  an  arabesque  form  of  ornamentation,  which 
spread  southward  to  Italy  with  the  Lombards,  and  north- 
ward to  England  and  Ireland.  From  Erin's  Isle  the  ara- 
besque was  again  transplanted  to  the  North,  where  it  under- 
went a  varied  development,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  decorative 
convolutions  on  certain  rune  stones,  found  principally  in 
central  Sweden,  and  executed  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries.  Erected  at  a  time  when  the  Romanesque  school 
dominated  the  continent,  these  runic  monuments  often  show 
Romanesque  influence  in  the  style  of  their  ornamentations, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  old  Norse  forms  of  decoration 
that  were  revived  in  the  boldly  fantastic,  marvellously  well 
executed  portals  of  the  Norwegian  wooden  stave-churches  as 
well  as  in  the  remains  of  the  Swedish.  The  first  churches  In 
Sweden,  like  the  houses  and  temples  of  pagan  times,  were 
of  wood. 

After  1 100,  stone  churches  became  more  and  more  com- 
moXTn  tTTe  twelfth  century,  Lund  Cathedral  was  dedicated, 

37 


38 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  crypt  of.  Lund  Cathedral  with  the  Giant  Finn  embracing  one  of 
the  columns 


though  it  has,  of  course,  been  altered  and  repaired  several 
times  since  its  erection.  Built  by  Canute  the  Holy,  it  was 
designed  after  the  Romanesque  temples  of  the  Rhine  district. 
It  was  thoroughly  repaired  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  under  the  supervision  of  the  Westphalian  master- 
builder,  Adam  van  Diiren,  and  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  subjected  to  a  crude  restoration.  The  choir  is 
adorned  with  richly  carved  Gothic  stalls,  executed  about  the 
year  1400.  The  magnificent  crypt,  resting  on  columns  with 
square  capitals,  extends  beneath  the  chancel  and  transept. 
The  oldest  sculpture  of  the  cathedral  is  the  so-called  Giant 
Finn,  who  embraces  one  of  the  columns  of  the  crypt.  It  is 
considered  by  many  to  represent  Samson.  In  the  last  decade 
of  the  twelfth  century,  Gumlosa  Church  in  Skane,  about 
twenty  kilometers  northwest  of  Kristianstad  was  dedicated. 
It  was  covered  by  a  cross-vault,  and  was  built  of  brick,  with 
the  tower  and  the  roof  ornamented  by  corbie-step  gables. 
These  latter,  which  were  added  subsequently,  constitute, 
naturally  enough,  a  characteristic  of  brick  architecture,  and 
are  often   found  on  the   church  buildings  that  rise  on  the 


A  siiRvr:v  ()!''  swi:i)isii  art 


39 


w:niii<^  grain  liclcls  ol  Skniic  or  gleam  among  the  beech  wood- 
hiiuls  of  Sjslland.  Now  and  then,  these  edifices  were  given 
a  round  form,  but  more  often  they  were  constructed  with  a 
single  rectangular  nave.  The  walls  of  the  small  country 
churches  were  as  thick  as  fortresses,  and  during  these  times, 
when  there  was  a  constant  state  of  war,  they  were  in  fact 
sometimes  used  as  forts.  The  steeple  was  not  considered  a 
necessity,  and  several  of  our  foremost  abbeys  and  cathedrals 
had  no  steeples,  but  when  it  became  the  custom  in  many 
country  districts,  especially  in  Gotland,  to  erect  towers  for 
defense,  known  as  castellets,  it  was  ultimately  found  prac- 
tical to  build  these  towers  adjoining  the  church.  The  Keep 
in  Halsingborg,  a  remnant  of  the  defenses  of  the  city,  prob- 
ably dating  back  to  the  twelfth  century,  is  one  of  the  few 
secular  constructions  from  olden  times  in  Sweden. 

In  the  region  of  Vastergotland,  where  Christian  Swedish 
culture  first  made  its  appearance,  the  abbey _of  Varnhem 
indicates  a  French  arrangement  of  choir  and  chapels.  The 
monastery  of  Varnhem  was  founded  about  1150  by  monks 


/ 


a    . 

\                        / 

^ 

JL               ^fl^^^*'«s^ 

■1 

„...^J3^^^^^%W :.... -* 

The  abbey  of  Varnhem  completed  in  the  thirteenth  century 


40 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  choir  in  the  abbey  of  Varnhem  presaging  the  Gothic 
style 

of  the  Bernardine  order.  On  the  plain  below  Billingen,  the 
white  walls  of  the  venerable  church  gleam  through  the  ver- 
dure. The  edifice  was  not  completed  until  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  its  interior  presages  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Gothic  style.  The  Gothic  cathedral  of  Skara, 
with  its  abruptly  terminating  choir,  has  been  much  altered 
in  the  course  of  its  manifold  reconstructions.  The  original 
building,  like  the  present  one,  was  characterized  by  triforia. 
In  the  city  of  Sigtuna,  on  Lake  Malaren,  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  churches  erected  in  the  twelfth  century  In  the  Roman- 
esque style,  but  unfortunately  these  are  now  In  ruins. 

Without  doubt,  Gotland  was  the  Swedish  province  where 


A  SURVKY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


41 


The  lower  story  of  the  peculiar  double  church  of  the  Helgeandsorden 
at  Visby,  now  a  ruin 


the  art  of  building  attained  its  highest  development  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  active  mercantile  relations  of  the 
island  with  Russia  and  northern  Germany,  the  presence  of  a 
wealthy  German-Swedish  middle  class  in  Visby,  and  the 
abundance  of  sandstone  and  limestone  were  factors  in  pro- 


42 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


/ 


ducing  a  richer  architecture  than  that  on  the  mainland.  The 
golden  period  falls  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
and  many  a  stately  church  sprang  up  between  the  corbie-step 
gables  of  the  burghers'  houses,  behind  the  defiant  city  wall 
with  its  bartizans  and  earth-bound  towers.  The  peculiar 
double  church  of  the  Helgeandsorden  dates  presumably 
from  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  reveals  the 
mingling  of  Romanesque  and  Gothic  forms  characteristic 
of  the  period.     It  is  an  octagonal,  centralized  construction, 


Dalhem  Church  typical  of  the  country  churches  in  Gotland 


A  SURVKY  ()I<   SWIsDISII   y\I<'l" 


43 


I'he    portal    of    Etelhem    Church    with    the    union 
of  Romanesque  and  Gothic  characteristic  of  Got- 
land churches 


with  two  Stories  connected  by  flights  of  stairs  and  by  an 
opening  two  meters  wide  in  the  floor  of  the  second  story. 
In  all  probability,  one  p%rt  was  intended  for  the  sick  and 
the  poor,  the  other  for  the  wealthy  supporters  and  friends 
of  the  Order  among  the  merchant  aristocracy  of  Visby. 
Unfortunately  the  Helgeandskyrka,  like  all  churches  of 
Visby — with  the  exception  of  the  St.  Maria  Cathedral — is  a 
ruin,  though  tolerably  well  preserved.  The  Gothic  choir  of 
St.  Karin  belongs  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
must  therefore  have  been  built  immediately  after  Valdemar 
Atterdag  sacked  the  city  in  1361,  when  the  Danish  ships 
were  loaded  with  several  barrels  of  shining  Visby  coins 
minted  with   the  figures  of  the  lamb   and  the  lily.     The 


44 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

were  enlarged  or  re- 


majority  of  the  churches  on  Gotland 
built  during  the  Gothic  period. 

In  the  country  districts  of  Gotland  the  churches  are  better 
preserved.  Dalhem  Church,  dedicated  in  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  has  a  tower  that  is  typical  of  many  of 
the  country  churches  of  Gotland;  the  lower  part  Is  Roman- 
esque; the  upper  part  has  been  added  later  and  has  pointed 


View  of  the  interior  of  Etelhem  Church  showing  the  central  column 


A  SURVEY  OK  SVVJa)ISn  ART 


45 


arches.  In  its  interior  it  is  a  hall  cluirch,  resting  upon 
slender  cohinins  with  the  square  capitals  characteristic  of 
northern  luirope.  In  several  churches  the  nave  was  covered 
by  four  cross  vaults,  resting  upon  one  central  column,  as  in 
the  Etelhem  Church,  As  an  example  of  the  Gotland  portals 
with  their  union  of  Romanesque  and  Gothic  forms,  and  with 
a  lintel  resembling  the  Romanesque  ornamentation  in  wood, 
the  portal  of  Etelhem  Church  may  be  mentioned. 


The  nave  of  Linkoping  Cathedral   showing  English  influence 


Gotland  belonged  to  the  bishopric  of  Linkoping,  and 
with  the  help  of  the  Gotlanders,  who  were  skilled  in  stone 
work,  one  of  the  most  stately  cathedrals  of  the  land  was 
erected  in  the  city  of  Linkoping.  Its  predominating  style, 
however,  was  English.  It  took  a  long  time  to  build  Lin- 
koping Cathedral.  It  is  said  to  have  been  begun  shortly 
after  the  year  1200,  and  the  construction  went  on  during  the 
whole  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  first  half  of  the  four- 
teenth— the  work  was  interrupted  by  the  Great  Plague — 
and  the  fifteenth  century.     The  west  towers,  which  were  a 


46 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The    south    portal    of    Linkoping    Cathedral    showing    the    influence    of    the 
Gotland  church  buildings 

part  of  the  plan,  were  never  erected.  The  church  had  a 
greater  richness  of  ornamentation  than  any  seen  before  In 
our  land.  The  interior  consisted  of  a  three-naved  body, 
forming  a  hall-church  with  a  later  Gothic  choir  and  ambu- 
latory. The  construction  of  the  choir  was  begun  In  the 
early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  a  Master  Gierlac  from 
Cologne,  and  was  completed  about  a  hundred  years  later  by 
other  "Cologne  master-men."  The  magnificent  south  por- 
tal betrayed  clearly  a  Gotlandic  Influence. 

On  the  plain  of  Uppland,  Sweden's  largest  cathedral 
edifice,  Uppsala  Cathedral,  stands  as  the  foremost  example 
of  Swedish  brick  architecture  In  the  Gothic  style.  Numer- 
ous fires,  restorations,  and  finally  a  complete  reconstruc- 
tion in  1 885-1 893  have  considerably  changed  the  old 
church,  but  the  Interior,  the  plan,  and  certain  details  still 
remain  from  the  medieval  period.  The  foundations  were 
laid  during  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
during  the  whole  of  the  following  century  papal  indulgences 
were  granted  to  those  who  contributed  gifts  for  its  erection. 
The  cathedral  was  not  dedicated  until  1435,  and  was  not 
even  then  entirely  finished.  The  plan  is  northern  French. 
It  is  a  three-naved  basilica,  that  is,  It  possesses  a  central 


A  suRVKV  oi'  swi':nisii  Airr 


47 


body  provided  with  windows  and  consecjucntly  higher  than 
the  side  naves.  A  row  of  chapels  extends  around  the  whole 
church — an  arrangement  typical  of  the  Baltic  region.  The 
choir  has  the  characteristic  Trench  form  with  an  encircling 
ambulatory  and  a  row  of  chapels,  the  central  one  of  which 
contains  the  stately  Sarcophagus  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  made 
in  the  Netherlands.  The  fresco  paintings  added  in  the  thir- 
ties of  the  nineteenth  century  are  painted  by  Johan  Gustav 


Sculpture  on  a  console  in  Uppsala  Cathedral  representing  Jews  being 
suckled  by  a  sow 

Sandberg,  and  treat  of  the  historical  events  in  the  life  of 
Gustavus  Vasa  according  to  the  conceptions  prevalent  in 
that  period.  The  interior  of  the  church  measures  107 
meters  in  length,  27  meters  in  height,  and  is  for  the  most 
part  newly  decorated. 

Among  the  more  noteworthy  remains  from  medieval 
times  still  seen  in  the  church  are  the  consoles,  originally 
pedestals  for  statues  that  have  since  disappeared,  which 
now  adorn  the  pillars  near  the  choir-ambulatory.  The 
sculptures  that  grace  the  consoles  were  in  all  probability  exe- 


48  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

cuted  by  Gotlandic  sculptors  about  1350,  and  represent 
naively,  but  with  considerable  faithfulness  of  description, 
medieval  legends  and  symbols  and  even  a  brutal  anti-Semitic 
raillery.  Jews  and  pigs  are  seen  tumbling  over  one  another 
with  obvious  friendliness,  an  illustration  that  calls  to  mind 
the  coarseness  of  medieval  sermons,  spiced  for  the  special 
benefit  of  the  congregation.  The  French  sculptor,  Etienne 
de  Bonneuil,  and  his  journeymen  worked  on  the  cathedral 
the  last  years  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Back  of  the  high 
altar,  near  which  Archbishop  Jons  Bengtsson  Oxenstierna 
swore  at  one  time  not  to  exchange  armor  and  sword  for 
the  bishop's  hat  and  staff  until  he  had  driven  Karl  Knutsson 
out  of  the  land,  stands  the  "Gilded"  silver  shrine  of  St.  Eric 
— the  present  one  executed  by  a  Danish  goldsmith  during  the 
reign  of  Johan  III — containing  the  bones  of  the  saint,  which 
were  brought  here  from  Old  Uppsala  in  1273.  The  pulpit, 
carved  by  the  sculptor  Burchardt  Precht  after  drawings  by 
Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Younger,  was  set  up  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  and  is  a  master  example  of  the  most  luxu- 
rious baroque,  well  suited  to  the  pompous  and  endless 
sermons  of  the  Carolinian  age.  Precht  carved  also  the 
magnificent  altar-piece  in  the  baroque  style,  which  adorned 
the  church  for  almost  two  hundred  years,  until  it  was  re- 
moved at  the  time  of  the  restoration,  and  replaced  by  a 
new  one  in  the  Gothic  style  of  1890.  This  remarkable 
work  of  art  was  sculptured  by  Precht  strongly  influenced 
by  the  design  of  the  altar  of  St.  Ignatius  by  Padre  Pozzo; 
it  Is  now  in  the  Vasa  Church  in  Stockholm.  The  exterior  of 
the  cathedral  has  undergone,  if  possible,  yet  greater 
changes.  About  the  year  1400,  two  enormous  brick  towers 
of  the  North  German  style  with  buttresses  were  erected.  In 
the  course  of  time,  the  spires  have  had  a  great  variety  of 
forms.  During  the  seventeenth  century,  the  church  had 
spires  in  the  baroque  style  and  a  smaller  spire  or  ridge- 
turret  directly  over  the  intersection-point  of  the  roofs.  The 
fire  of  1702  did  violent  damage  to  the  cathedral.  In  the 
restoration  which  followed  thereupon,  the  arch-buttresses 
and  ridge-turret  were  removed,  and  the  architect  Harleman 


A  SUKVI'A'  Ol"  S\Vl':i)ISII    AR'I'  49 

erected  those  tower-caps  wlucli  o:i\c  tlicir  characicristic 
stnmp  to  the  Uppsala  ol  Liiinc  aiul  (icijcr.  The  recoii- 
stnieted  huilchno-,  wliich  was  coinpletccl  in  the  nineties  of 
the  hist  century,  is  an  attempt  to  give  the  church  again  a 
kind  of  French-Gothic  appearance  in  the  cheapest  and  quick- 
est way  by  removing  the  alterations  that  have  accrued 
through  the  centuries.  The  old,  venerable  tower-caps  were 
torn  down,  the  tower  facades  were  redone,  and  phiahe  and 
fountains  were  done  In  cement,  since  In  our  day  we  could 
not  "afford"  to  use  cut  stone  for  the  first  church  of  the 
kingdom.  In  contrast  with  this  thin  and  cheap  cement- 
Gothlclsm,  the  beautiful  south  portal,  erected  early  In  the 
fourteenth  century  at  the  expense  of  Chancellor  Ambjorn 
Sparre,  produces  an  effect  of  unusual  charm  through  the 
beauty  of  Its  sculpture  and  the  richness  of  Its  material. 

Two  Important  brick  churches  are  the  old  cathedrals  of 
Vasteras  and  Strangnas,  which  have  been  several  times  re- 
built, and  which  In  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century 
received  new  choirs.  The  recently  restored  Strangnas 
Cathedral,  with  Its  picturesque  tower  In  the  baroque  style 
and  Its  red  brick  walls  rising  out  of  the  verdure,  Is  certainly 
through  Its  location  and  also  In  other  ways  one  of  Sweden's 
most  beautiful  cathedrals. 

Most  notable  among  the  churches  of  the  late  Middle 
Ages  Is  the  abbey  of  Vadstena,  built  of  limestone  with  the 
choir  toward  the  west,  according  to  the  directions  of  St. 
BIrgltta,  as  prescribed  and  revealed  to  her  by  Christ.  The 
fifteenth  century — the  chapel  was  dedicated  In  1430 — was 
the  golden  age  of  the  abbey  and  convent.  The  bluish-grey 
limestone  walls  of  this  towerless  church  were  surrounded 
by  the  most  luxuriant  vegetation,  for  the  monks  and  nuns 
of  the  Briggittine  order  were  zealous  gardeners  and  pos- 
sessed an  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  nature.  Many 
believers  visited  the  beautiful  convent-chapel  on  the  shore 
of  Lake  Vattern  and  found  solace  In  the  sight  of  the  Holy 
Virgin's  milk,  a  precious  relic  which  was  preserved  there. 
The  interior  is  supported  by  simple,  octagonal  pillars,  and 
the  roof  is  made  up  of  graceful,  ribbed  vaulting. 


50  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Baptismal  font  executed  in  Gotland,  about  the  year  1200, 

used    in    Tingstad   church   in   Ostergotland.     The    reliefs 

around   the   cuppa   represent  the    Three   Wise   Men   and 

other  incidents  from  the  childhood  of  Christ 

Sculpture  and  painting  were  very  little  developed  in 
Sweden  during  the  Middle  Ages.  The  sculpture  on  the 
portals  of  the  cathedrals  has  already  been  mentioned. 
There  was  not  much  art  in  the  ordinary  Swedish  country 
church  during  the  Middle  Ages,  but  sometimes  the  baptismal 
font  would  be  a  real  work  of  art,  with  a  cuppa,  or  bowl, 
embellished  with  carved  arabesques  or  reliefs.  The  sacred 
vessels  were  also  of  noble  form  and  decked  with  precious 
stones.  Pictures  of  Mary  and  the  saints,  all  sculptured  in 
wood  in  adherence  to  the  prevailing  tendencies  of  art  on 
the  Continent,  were  not  uncommon.  Large  carved  crucifixes 
were  sometimes  suspended  in  the  triumphal  arch,  the  vault 
of  the  chancel.  Now  and  then,  during  the  earlier  Middle 
Ages,  the  altar  in  Sweden  was  beautified  also  by  a  sculp- 
tured tablet  of  wood  or  metal,  the  antemensale.  This  form 
of   altar-decoration  was   succeeded   during   the    fourteenth 


A  suRVJa'  oi-  s\vi':i)isii  aki  si 

century  by  tabernacles  placc-d  back  of  tlie  altar  with  lifrurcs 
of  the  madonna  and  the  saints.  Toward  tlie  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century  and  the  bc^rinninjr  of  the  sixteenth,  taber- 
nacles of  unusually  inagnilicent  workmanship  were  imported 
from  the  Netherlands.  In  these  so-called  mystery  taber- 
nacles, the  figures,  formerly  so  rigid,  were  brought  together 
dramatically  to  reproduce  situations  from  Sacred  History, 
arranged  in  groups  reminiscent  of  scenes  from  the  Mystery 
Plays,  and  installed  in  small  niches.  The  figures  were 
carved  in  wood,  and  were  painted  and  gilded,  so  that  the 
whole  assumed  a  character  of  wrought  gold  in  conformity 
with  the  essence  of  the  Gothic  style.  All  this  was  seen  when 
the  tabernacle  was  open;  when  it  was  closed,  only  the  paint- 
ings on  the  outside  door  were  exposed  to  view. 

A  number  of  magnificent  tabernacles  were  also  imported 
from  Germany,  of  which  the  most  Important  was  completed 
in  the  year  1468  in  Liibeck  for  the  Storkyrka  in  Stockholm. 
It  is  now  preserved  in  Statens  Historiska  Museum.  One  of 
the  most  beautiful  German  tabernacles  is  one  ornamented  by 
painting  and  sculptures,  which  was  executed  early  in  the 
sixteenth  century  and  is  now  found  in  the  Stadskyrka  of 
Koping.  Here,  however,  the  figures  were  set  up  one  by 
one,  just  as  in  the  older  altar  cabinets.  Even  individual 
madonna  figures  were  inserted  in  tabernacles  with  painted 
doors;  for  example,  the  unusually  charming  madonna, 
which  is  preserved  in  Sorunda  Church  in  Sodertorn,  where 
Mary,  clad  in  gold  brocade  with  a  golden  crown,  is  sur- 
rounded by  the  four  mother  virgins.  Saints  Barbara,  Doro- 
thea, Catherine,  and  Margaret,  painted  on  the  doors.  This 
work  of  art  was  executed  in  Liibeck  about  1480.  In  the 
preservation  of  such  partly  destroyed  and  often  dispersed 
and  slighted  works  of  art  as  baptismal  fonts,  crucifixes,  and 
tabernacles,  which  form  so  important  a  part  in  our  country's 
history  of  art  and  aesthetic  beauty,  the  well-directed,  prac- 
tical, and  energetic  measures  of  Docent  J.  Roosval  and  Pro- 
fessor S.  Curman  have  earned  the  gratitude  of  our  nation. 

In  the  so-called  triumphal  arch,  the  arch  which  separates 
the  choir  from  the  nave,  there  often  hung  what  was  termed 


52 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The   madonna    tabernacle   in   Sorunda   church   in    Sodertorn,   where 

the  Virgin  Mary  is  surrounded  by  the  four  mother  virgins.    Executed 

about  1480  in  Herman  Rode's  workshop  in  Liibeck. 

a  triumph  crucifix,  and  the  most  artistically  finished  of  these 
is  a  figure  of  the  crucified  Savior,  with  the  symbols  of  the 
Evangelists  on  the  four  ends  of  the  cross,  executed  in  painted 
wood  about  1440.  The  well-nigh  naturalistic  treatment  of 
the  design  calls  to  mind  the  Spanish  wood  sculptures  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  has  been  hanging  in  the  abbey  of 
Vadstena  since  medieval  times. 


A  SURVEY  ()l<   SVVi:i)ISIl  ARl 


53 


The  triumph  crucifix  in  the   abbey  of  Vadstena,  called   "Salvator  i 

Wadstena,"  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  a  German  master  about 

the  year  1440 


Giistavus  Adolphus  was  accustomed  to  say  that,  "in 
Sweden  there  were  above  others  three  great  masterpieces: 
the  Knight  St.  Goran  in  Stockholm,  the  altar  painting  in 
Linkoping  (by  the  Dutchman  Hemskerk),  and  the  Salvator 


54 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


St.    Goran   and  the   Dragon,   sculpture   in  wood   by  Berndt   Notice,   from 
about  the  year  1489.     In  the  Storkyrka  at  Stockholm 


in  Vadstena."  The  foremost  example  of  medieval  Swedish 
sculpture  is  the  enormous  statue  of  St.  Goran  and  the 
Dragon,  paid  for  by  national  subscription,  and  set  up,  in 
1480,  in  the  Storkyrka  in  Stockholm  by  Sten  Sture  the  Elder 


A  SURVEY  Ol-  SWJ'.DISI  1  ART  55 

to  conitucnioratc  his  \'Ictory  at  Bruiikchcr^,  1471.*  1  he 
statue,  which  is  executed  in  wood  and  painted,  was  carved 
by  the  German  artist,  Berndt  Notke.  In  a  youthful  spirit  of 
combat,  the  patron  saint  of  warriors  attacks  the  dragon  with 
his  sword,  and  the  terrible  monster,  from  whose  skin  pro- 
tuberances have  grown  like  moose  horns,  roars,  and  in  his 
death-struggle  clutches  with  one  of  his  claws  the  broken 
lance  of  the  saint.  The  kneeling  rescued  maiden  reminds 
us  of  the  noble  Swedish  women  who,  while  the  battle  was 
raging  on  the  slopes  of  Brunkeberg  Ridge,  sent  up  fervent 
prayers  for  the  life  and  victory  of  their  knights. 

The  Storkyrka  in  Stockholm,  built  by  Birger  Jarl  and 
first  called  hykyrkan  (the  village  church)  was  sacred  to  the 
patron  saint  of  sea-farers,  St.  Nicholas.  The  interior, 
which  has  been  finished  with  great  taste  and  care,  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  church  interiors  of  our  country.  Besides 
the  above-mentioned  St.  Goran  and  the  Dragon,  the  temple 
is  adorned  by  a  magnificent  altar-piece  made  of  silver,  ivory, 
and  ebony,  which  was  presented  to  the  church  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  royal  councillor,  Adier 
Salvius,  replacing  the  old  tabernacle  made  in  1460-1470 
which  is  now  preserved  in  Statens  Historiska  Museum.  Be- 
fore it  stands  a  seven-armed,  medieval,  bronze  candlestick  of 
enormous  size,  a  gift  from  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  of  King  Magnus  Eriksson.  A  number  of  pomp- 
ously gilded  epitaphs  from  the  late  Renaissance  Illumine  the 
solemn  brick  vaults.  Strangnas  Cathedral  received  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  from  Bishop  Kort  Rogge,  a 


*  The  figure  of  St.  Goran  (St.  George)  was  allowed  to  stand  for  nearly 
four  hundred  years  in  the  Storkyrka  where  "the  great  Goran"  aroused  the 
interest  of  all  church  attendants,  and  not  least  of  the  country  people  who 
came  to  Stockholm.  Carl  Larsson  tells  us  what  a  strong  impression  the 
fantastic  group  made  upon  him  as  a  boy.  In  1866  the  statue  was  moved 
to  the  National  Museum,  where  it  was  set  up  in  a  dark  and  very  unsuitable 
place,  and  stood  there  in  obscurity  until  1907,  when  it  was  reclaimed  by 
the  Storkyrka.  In  1912  a  bronze  copy  of  St.  Goran  was  set  up  on  Kopman- 
brinken  in  Stockholm.  The  princess  was  added  in  1913.  From  the  stand- 
point of  beauty,  the  arrangement  of  this  whole  group  is,  I  dare  say,  the 
happiest  that  any  work  of  sculpture,  placed  out  of  doors,  has  received  in 
our  land. 


56 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Altar  tabernacle  in  Strangnas  Cathedral  with  sculptures  representing 

Christ  being  taken  down  from  the  cross.     Made  in   Brussels  about 

the  year  1490 


tabernacle  in  painted  wood  sculpture,  which  was  executed 
in  the  Netherlands. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  people  commenced  to  decorate 
the  walls  of  the  churches,  and  the  mural  paintings  in  Rada 
Church  in  Varmland,  from  the  century  following,  arc  still 
preserved.     During  the  fifteenth  century,  mural  painting  in 


A  SURVFV  ()\<   SWI':i)ISII   AK'I' 


57 


Unicorn  pursued  by  the  Angel   Gabriel,  painting   in  the  ceiling  of 
Osmo  Church  in  Sodertorn 


churches  became  very  common.  The  paintings  on  the  ceil- 
ing of  Osmo  Church  in  Sodertorn  date  from  the  middle  of 
this  century.  One  of  these  represents  the  popular  legend 
of  the  unicorn,  when  pursued  by  the  angel  Gabriel  equipped 
with  dogs  and  hunting-horn,  taking  refuge  with  the  Holy 
Virgin. 


II 


THE  CASTLES  OF  THE  VASAS.    AFTER  THE 
THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR 

DURING  the  reign  of  the  Vasa  kings,  the  Church  was 
obscured  by  the  royal  power.  Communion  cups  and 
silver  crucifixes  found  their  way  into  the  State 
treasury,  monasteries  were  suppressed,  and  church-building 
— there  was  already  a  superabundance  of  churches — ceased. 
The  economical  rule  of  King  Gosta  did  not  permit  art  to 
flourish.  The  fortified  castles  and  palaces  of  the  realm, 
which  had  fared  badly  during  the  War  of  Liberation,  had 
to  be  put  in  good  condition  first,  before  one  could  consider 
their  artistic  adornment.  Kalmar  Castle  and  the  Royal 
Palace  in  Stockholm  were  repaired  during  the  last  years  of 
Gustavus  Vasa's  reign,  but,  despite  their  interior  renovation, 
they  maintained  their  stern  medieval  exterior.  The  archi- 
tects and  artists  of  this  period  were  mostly  Gennans  and 
Dutchmen,  which  was  natural  enough,  since  the  Swedish 
bourgeoisie,  both  at  that  time  and  during  a  large  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  was  mixed  with  a  very  considerable 
German  and  Flemish-Dutch  element. 

In  the  year  1537,  Gustavus  Vasa  built  Gripsholm  Castle, 
which  was  enlarged  by  Charles  IX  during  the  last  years  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  Ponderous  brick  walls  enclose  two 
irregular  courtyards,  the  smaller  bounded  by  four  round 
towers  with  walls  three  or  four  meters  thick,  where  the 
deep  embrasures  are  like  small  rooms,  from  which  the 
Malaren  bay  and  the  castle  park  may  be  seen.  The  room  in 
the  tower  from  which  Duke  Charles  looked  out  over  his 
Soderm.anland  has  been  preserved  without  any  changes;  the 
wooden  wainscoting  of  the  walls  have  a  Renaissance  char- 

s8 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH   ARI 


59 


Vadstena   Castle  on  Lake   Vattern,  built  by  Gustavus   Vasa.     View 
showing  one  of  the  richly  ornamented  gables  that  were  added  later 

acter,  but  are  simple  in  form;  the  white  ceiling  is  decorated 
with  a  vine-ornamentation,  painted  by  an  artisan  from 
Strangnas,  and  the  bed,  engirded  by  pilasters  of  the  Renais- 
sance style,  is  built  into  the  wall.     To  this  bed  there  came 


60 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


often,  no  doubt,  gloomy  thoughts,  when  the  austere  duke 
brooded  over  Sigismund,  who  was  born  in  Gripsholm,  or 
remembered  how  his  brothers,  Eric  and  Johan,  with  hearts 
full  of  hate,  had  imprisoned  each  other  in  this  castle. 
Queen  Hedvig  Eleonora  made  Gripsholm  her  home  during 
her  long  widowhood.  She  enlarged  the  castle,  but  it  under- 
went yet  greater  alterations  during  the  reign  of  Gustavus 
III.  The  substantial  church  tower  was  then  renovated  to 
form  a  coquettish  theatre  in  the  Gustavian  style,  where  the 
members  of  the  court  and  the  royal  family  appeared  in  the 
performances.  Several  rooms  were  fitted  up  in  the  charm- 
ing style  of  the  eighteenth  century;  silk  shoes  tripped  on  the 
narrow  stairways,  and  the  gay  laughter  of  the  court  ladies 
chased  away  all  gloomy  memories  from  the  castle.  In  the 
nineties  of  the  last  century,  the  castle  was  restored. 

Although  Vadstena  Castle,  built  in  1545,  was  intended 
first  of  all  to  serve  as  a  military  base  in  case  of  an  attack 
from  the  south,  it  became  in  several  respects  Sweden's  most 
important  Renaissance  palace.  Built  of  greyish  stone,  with 
high  and  richly  ornamented  gables,  added  during  the  first 


King  Eric  XIV's   room   in   Kalinar   Castle,   decorated    ^vith   a    relief 
frieze  representing  hunting  scenes  in  painted  stucco 


A  Sllk\'i:V   Ol'    SWI'IDISII   AKI 


dcciulc  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  :\nt.\  with  its  Dor- 
ic portals  ol  stoiic  aiiis- 
tically  carx'ed,  it  produces 
an  impression  resenihling 
the  mansions  of  the  (ier- 
man-Dutch  princes. 

A  third  castle,  which 
shows  Sweden's  early 
Renaissance,  the  so- 
called  Vasa  style  with  its 
union  of  medieval  archi- 
tecture and  Renaissance 
ornament  (compare  the 
style  of  Francis  I,  in 
France,  for  we  were  al- 
ways a  few  decades  be- 
hind Central  Europe)  is 
"the  key  of  Sweden," 
Kalmar  Castle.  In  the 
apartment  de  luxe  of  the 
castle  lived  Eric  XIV, 
and  here  the  gifted  prince 
could  receive  his  counts 
and  barons  in  royal  fash- 
Ion.  It  is  claimed  that 
the    king    himself,    who 

was  interested  in  art,  contributed  with  his  own  hand  to  the 
decoration  of  King  Eric's  apartment,  where  a  panel  with 
Corinthian  columns,  a  relief-frieze  with  hunting  figures  In 
painted  stucco,  and  doors  inlaid  with  different  kinds  of  wood 
formed  a  suitable  frame  for  the  court  of  the  brilliant  Renais- 
sance monarch. 

The  wealthy  and  splendor-loving  Danish  nobility  built 
in  Skane,  especially  during  the  sixteenth  and  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  number  of  magnificent  castles 
and  strongholds,  of  which  some  are  still  preserved.  Such 
are   Glimmingehus,   of  which   the    foundation   was   laid   in 


Fountain    set    up    in    the    court    of 
Kalmar    Castle   by  Johan    III,  the 
work  of  Dominicus  Pahr  and  Ro- 
land Mackle 


62 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Svenstorp  castle  near  Lund  in  Skane,  built  in  1596 


1499;  Borgeby  near  Lund;  Vittskovle,  which  Is  situated  a 
short  distance  from  Kristianstad  and  mirrors  its  proud  walls 
in  the  water  of  the  canals;  Skarhult  near  Eslov;  and  most 
notable  of  all,  Svenstorp  in  the  vicinity  of  Lund,  constructed 
about  1590,  and  the  most  stately  and  the  most  nobly  con- 
ceived of  these  castles.  Trefaldlghetskyrkan  in  Kristian- 
stad, completed  In  1628,  Is  also  built  In  this  Danish  brick 
Renaissance  style. 

Johan  III  had  a  real  mania  for  architecture.  He  added 
to  the  decorations  of  Kalmar  Castle,  and  set  up  In  the  court 
a  fine  fountain,  the  severe  Doric  forms  of  which  are 
enlivened  by  escutcheons  and  grinning  faces,  the  whole 
crowned  by  a  dolphin.  King  Johan,  concerning  whom 
Johan  Messenlus  said, 


A  SURVI'lV  Ol'  SWI'IDISII    Akr  63 

"Well  'K()/il(l  lir,  (IS  I  liavr  Iranicd, 
Slorkhohii  into  Rome  diid  /'cuicc  have  liinictl," 
rcpairctl  the  (ircy  Immiits'  oltl  temple,  the  Ritithirhoh)! 
Church  in  Stockhohii,  and  huilt  its  present  choir  in  the  Gothic 
style.  This  church  had  heen  constructed  at  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  by  Magnus  Ladulas,  who  is  buried  there. 
Johan's  chief  interest,  however,  was  to  enlarge  and  beautify 
the  Royal  Palace  in  Stockholm.  Its  inner  court  was  given 
an  appearance  more  "in  conformity  with  the  time"  by  the 
construction  of  the  Green  Corridor  and  the  large  flight  of 
steps  with  the  baldachin  and  Trumpeters'  Corridor.  The 
exterior,  with  its  smooth  walls,  and  the  proud  tower  Tre 
Kronor,  retained  its  medieval  character  for  a  hundred 
years  more. 

On  the  barren  Swedish  soil,  the  art  of  painting  grew 
slowly,  and  when  we  entered  into  direct  relation  with  the 
Continent  through  the  Vasa  kings,  an  importation  of  art 
and  artists  was  the  only  way  in  which  artistic  activity  could 
be  promoted.  Thus  the  Dutchman,  Verwilt,  came  during 
the  last  years  of  Gustavus  Vasa's  reign,  and  assisted  in  the 
interior  decoration  of  Kalmar  Castle  during  the  reign  of 
Eric  XIV.  He  designed  also  the.  cartoons  for  the  woven 
tapestries,  which  were  then  made  in  Sweden,  and  of  which 
two  are  preserved  in  the  National  Museum.  They  treat 
themes  from  mythical  history,  one  picturing  the  story  of 
King  Sveno  and  the  other  that  of  Magog.  Baptista  van 
Uther  acted  as  court  painter  to  Johan  III. 

The  foundations  of  Jakob's  Church  in  Stockholm  were 
laid  during  the  reign  of  Johan  III,  but  it  was  not  fully  com- 
pleted until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
German  Church  in  Stockholm  Is  one  of  the  most  inspiring 
In  Sweden,  thanks  to  the  faithfulness  with  which  the  old 
artistic  interior  is  preserved.  Moreover  It  is  surrounded 
by  verdant  trees  In  the  midst  of  urban  houses,  and  possesses 
beautiful  wrought  Iron  gates.  The  church  with  Its  network 
of  ribbed  vaulting  was  finished  about  1640.  The  vaults  are 
of  the  late  Gothic  style,  but  the  altarplece,  the  pulpit  of 
ebony  and  alabaster,  and  the  showy  royal  gallery  with  Its 


64 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  portal  of  Erik  von  der  Linde's  house  in  Stock- 
holm, built  at  the  time  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 


glass  walls,  constructed  in  1672,  as  well  as  the  portal,  are 
of  the  German  baroque.  In  1890  the  German  Church  was 
extraordinarily  well  repaired. 

Private  houses  in  Stockholm  retained  the  pointed  gables 
of  medieval  times  during  the  seventeenth  century,  as  the 
copper  engravings  of  Dahlbergh's  Snecia  antiqua  show,  but 
the  ornamentation  reveals  a  taste  for  an  exuberant  form  of 
the  baroque  with  the  addition  of  a  bourgeois  touch.  A 
typical  example  of  a  wealthy  citizen's  home  in  Stockholm 
during  the  days  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  is  the  House  of 
Erik  von  der  Linde  at  68  Vasterlanggatan.  Linde,  himself 
a  native  of  Holland,  became  a  Swedish  nobleman,  and  his 


A  sLiRVi:v  oi^'  s\vi;i)isii  arv  (.5 

son  I.ars  luul  the  honor  ol  hciii^  hooii  coiiipaiiloii  to  Charles 
X  Cjustaviis.  I'he  I  rout  ot  tlie  mansion  is  adorned  by  a 
magnificent  portal,  where  the  busts  of  Neptune  and  Mer- 
cury indicate  that  the  owner  had  acquired  riches  through 
commerce  and  trade.  On  the  doorposts  luscious  fruits  are 
carxed — an  expression  of  the  Rubensian  joy  of  hving  and 
k)ve  of  sumptuousness  that  marked  the  age.  The  side  which 
faces  the  Kornhamnstorg  still  retains,  in  spite  of  alterations, 
its  bower  (biirsprak) ,  a  form  of  extension  which  was  par- 
ticularly popular  in  Germany,  In  the  Linde  house  it  is 
supported  by  comical  sea-gods,  rendered  with  that  Northern 
humor  which  north  of  the  Alps  so  often  breaks  through  the 
studied  forms  of  the  Renaissance  and  gives  a  tinge  of  medie- 
valism. That  the  house  in  its  day  had  been  costly  can  be 
concluded  from  the  assertion  of  the  builder  that  "nobody 
shall  know  what  my  house  and  my  son  Lasse  have  cost  me." 
The  Petersen  House  near  Munkbron  in  Stockholm  was  built 
about  1650  upon  the  site  where  the  historian  Erik  Gorans- 
son  Tegel,  the  son  of  Goran  Persson,  had  his  spice  shop  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century.  An  addition  was  built,  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  on  the  side  facing 
the  sea.  Often  the  ends  of  the  crampirons  were  allowed 
to  appear  on  the  plastered  facade  and  were  ornamented. 
Decorative  devices  in  metal  were  not  seldom  seen. 

When  the  Swedish  magnates,  laden  with  booty,  returned 
from  the  long  German  war,  they  found  their  poor  wooden 
houses  or  their  clumsy  stone  fortresses  small  and  uncom- 
fortable, and,  spurred  on  by  foreign  examples,  they  now 
commenced  to  build  castles  and  mansions  which  corre- 
sponded with  the  growing  prestige  of  the  nobility  and  with 
the  more  peaceful  and  orderly  conditions  within  the  country. 
The  construction  of  Axel  Oxenstierna's  mansion  Tido  In 
Vastmanland,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Malaren,  was  begun 
soon  after  1620,  but  was  not  completed  until  about  1650. 
Tido  consists  of  a  main  building  and  also,  like  the  castles  of 
the  French  grandees,  of  lower  wings,  which  adjoin  a  third 
low  building  or  wall,  and  encircle  the  paved  courtyard. 
Through  a  stately  stone  portal  in  the  style  of  the  late  Renais- 


66  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

sance,  ornamented  by  coats-of-arms,  the  heavy,  seventeenth- 
century  carriages  rolled  in  and  stopped  In  front  of  the  big  dou- 
ble flights  of  steps.  As  befitted  the  great  chancellor,  the  walls 
of  the  castle  apartments  were  adorned  with  Gobelin  tapes- 
try and  gilt  leather  hangings,  and  the  doors — real  treasures 
— were  Inlaid  with  different  kinds  of  wood  and  provided 
with  artistically  made  locks.  TIdo  showed  both  In  Its  exte- 
rior and  Interior  that  a  new  age  had  arrived.  Instead  of 
the  Irregular  medieval  structures,  where  the  exterior  signi- 
fied only  defiant  strength,  there  began  to  appear  castles  In 
which  a  symmetrical  design  and  noble,  well-balanced  pro- 
portions were  Intended  to  infuse  in  the  spectator  subservient 
sentiments  of  admiration  and  respect. 

About  1650  the  palace  Makalos  was  built  in  Stockholm 
between  Kungstradgarden  and  Strommen.  It  belonged  to 
the  husband  of  Ebba  Brahe,  Jakob  De  la  Gardle,  and  with 
Its  steep  roof  and  rich  sandstone  ornaments,  was  the  finest 
private  house  In  the  city.  Later  it  was  used  as  arsenal  and 
dramatic  theatre.     It  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1825. 

During  the  reign  of  Christina,  the  Dutchman,  David 
Beck,  resided  a  few  years  In  Sweden.  He  painted  the  por- 
trait of  Queen  Christina,  and  also  left  us  a  strong  and 
subtle  picture  of  General  Gustav  Horn,  which  proves  that 
he  studied  to  good  purpose  under  Van  Dyck.  The  French- 
man, Sebastien  Bourdon,  In  his  portrait  of  Christina — in 
simple  black  dress  with  white  collar — has  rendered  In  a 
distinguished  manner  her  pale,  aristocratic  Vasa  features 
with  the  large,  greyish-blue  eyes.  His  portrait  of  Chris- 
tina's half-brother,  the  Count  of  Vasaborg,  the  son  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Margareta  Slots,  shows  the  same 
merits.  Christina  had  a  profound  Interest  In  art.  Her 
collection  of  paintings  was  considerable,  and  an  immeas- 
urable aesthetic  capital  was  removed  from  the  land  when 
she  took  away  her  Correglo,  Titian,  and  Veronese  canvases. 

Many  castles  of  real  magnificence  from  the  viewpoint  of 
our  conditions  are  pictured  in  Suecia  antiqiia  et  hodierua  by 
the  celebrated  general  and  architect  Erik  Dahlbergh,  the 
most  superb  and  costly  work  de  luxe  that  has  ever  been 
published  In  our  land.     Several  of  the  castles  reproduced  In 


A  suKvi:v  oi"  s\vi:i)isii  \k i 


(^1 


Drottningholm  Castle  neai-  Stockholm,  the  central  part   designed  by 
Tessin    the    Elder    for    Queen    Dowager    Hedvig    Eleonora 


good  copper  engravings  from  sketches  by  Dahlbergh,  ren- 
dering even  the  artistically  trimmed  hedges  of  the  parks 
and  symmetrically  grouped  platbands,  have  never  been 
built;  for  the  Crown  reduction  of  Charles  XI  compelled 
many  an  ambitious  building-plan  to  stop  on  paper.  Siiecia 
antiqua  appeared  in  171 6. 

One  of  the  most  splendid  castles,  filled  with  a  super- 
abundance of  booty  from  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  was  Gen- 
eral Karl  Gustav  Wrangel's  Skoklgster  with  its  magnificent 
vestibule  supported  by  joined  Ionic  columns.  It  is  situated 
on  the  fairway  between  Sigtuna  and  Uppsala,  was  built  by 
a  native  of  Stralsund,  Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Elder,  and  the 
Frenchman,  Jean  de  la  Vallee,  and  finished  in  1679.  Among 
the  Elder  Tessin's  many  and  important  buildings  was  Axel 
Oxenstierna's  Palace  (now  the  central  office  of  the  Statis- 
tical Bureau)  near  Storkyrkobrinken,  and  the  former  Riks- 
bank  In  Stockholm,  reminiscent  of  the  Roman  palaces. 
Tessin  the  Elder  made  the  first  drawings  for  the  Carolinian 
mortuary  chapel  known  as  Karolinska  Kapellet.  The  other 
chapels  In  the  Riddarholm  Church  were  constructed  about 
1650. 


68  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  central  part  of  Drottningholm  Castle  was  built,  in 
conformity  with  the  wishes  of  the  art-loving  Dowager  Queen 
of  the  Realm,  Hedvig  Eleonora,  by  Tessin  the  Elder. 
Precht  sculptured  Hedvig  Eleonora's  magnificent  golden 
bed-chamber.  Tessin  also  designed  Borgholm  Castle  on 
Oland.  This  building,  begun  in  1654,  is  now  the  most 
beautiful  ruin  in  Sweden.  In  Kalmar  Cathedral,  dedicated 
1682,  Tessin  the  Elder  furnished  an  example  of  a  central 
church  in  the  baroque  style,  although  the  cupola,  which  is 
essential  for  such  a  building,  was  never  constructed. 

The  zealous  orthodox  movement  which  characterized  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  our  land,  not  least 
during  the  severely  ecclesiastical  rule  of  Charles  XI,  re- 
sulted in  a  large  number  of  church  buildings.  The  majority 
of  our  churches  then  received  altar  decorations  and  pulpits 
in  the  rich  and  florid  forms  of  the  time;  in  the  year  1671 
Katarina  Church  in  Stockholm  was  dedicated,  and  in  1658 
the  foundations  were  laid  of  the  Hedvig  Eleonora  Church 
in  the  eastern  suburb  of  the  city.  Both  these,  as  well  as  the 
Ulrica  Eleonora  or  Kungsholm  church,  which  was  built  in 
the  decade  of  1670  and  named  after  the  pious  wife  of 
Charles  XI,  are  central  churches  in  the  baroque  style. 

The  most  beautiful  architectural  creation  of  the  century 
is  Riddarhuset  (the  Hall  of  Knights)  in  Stockholm  which, 
however,  was  not  completed  early  enough  to  be  occupied 
during  the  most  brilliant  period  of  the  Swedish  nobility. 
Two  architects,  emigrants  from  France,  Simon  de  la  Vallee 
(killed  in  1642  by  Erik  Oxenstierna  in  a  fight  on  the  public 
marketplace  in  Stockholm)  and  his  son,  Jean  de  la  Vallee, 
were  the  designers  of  this  palace,  which  was  constructed  in 
a  kind  of  French-Dutch  baroque.  The  foundations  were 
laid  in  1642  from  drawings  by  Simon  de  la  Vallee,  but  Jean, 
who  also  built  the  beautiful  palace,  formerly  the  Town  Hall, 
owned  by  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  Gustav  Bonde,  later 
altered  this  plan  and,  together  with  the  Dutchman,  Ving- 
boons,  became  the  real  creator  of  the  edifice.  It  was  not 
before  1680,  when  the  supremacy  of  the  nobility  was  really 
nearing  its  close,  and  the  nobles  were  compelled  to  bend 


A  SlIRVJa'  Ol'   SVVJ'IDISII  ARr 


69 


Riddaihuset  (the  Hall  of  Knights)   in  Stockholm,  designed  by  Simon 
de  la  Vallee  and  his  son,  Jean  de  la  Vallee,  completed  in  1680 

the  neck  under  absolutism,  that  the  Estate  took  possession 
of  the  building.  The  red  brick  walls  are  partitioned  by 
pilasters  of  sandstone,  which,  according  to  the  new  baroque 
ideas,  pass  through  both  stories.  Very  beautiful  Corinthian 
capitals  support  a  frieze,  bearing  an  Inscription  which  runs 
around  the  building  and  is  composed  of  unusually  well- 
formed  letters.  The  boldly  curved  copper  roof  by  Jean  de 
la  Vallee  is  crowned  by  chimneys  constructed  like  altars  or 
sending  out  clouds  of  smoke  from  bomb-like  structures  which 
rest  on  pedestals  adorned  with  trophies.  The  roof,  sup- 
ported by  consoles  and  graced  by  decorative  statues.  Is 
broken  by  a  gable  on  each  side.  Luxuriant  garlands  of  fruit 
carved  in  stone  separate  the  two  stories,  and  beneath  the 
windows  and  in  the  segment-arched  or  triangular  gable-bays 
over  the  tops  of  the  windows,  grin  the  grotesque,  decorative 
heads  so  well  loved  by  the  creators  of  the  baroque  style 
north  of  the  Alps.  In  the  large  assembly  hall  of  Rlddar- 
huset,  Ehrenstrahl  painted  In  1674,  the  same  year  that  he 
himself  was  raised  to  the  peerage,  a  gigantic  celling  com- 
position  representing  The   Graces   In   Counsel  before   the 


70  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Throne  of  Svea ;  and,  now  following,  now  deviating  from 
these  high  precepts,  the  Swedish  noblemen  deliberated  in 
this  building  about  the  welfare  of  Sweden  until  that  mem- 
orable December  day  in  1865,  when  patriotism  and  gener- 
osity were  strong  enough  to  make  them  sacrifice  their 
privileged  condition  of  their  own  free  will. 

David  Klocker,  enobled  under  the  name  of  Ehrenstrahl, 
was  born  in  Hamburg.  In  his  pompous  portraits  of  the 
kings  of  the  Palatine  House,  of  his  patroness  Queen  Hedvig 
Eleonora,  and  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  Swedish 
nobility,  we  see  the  princes  and  rulers  of  the  age  known  as 
"The  Period  of  Greatness,"  a  little  heavy  perhaps  in  their 
pomposity,  very  uneven  in  artistic  presentation,  but  always 
instinct  with  power  and  boldness.  Ehrenstrahl  has  painted 
half  a  century  of  Swedish  greatness.  He  became  "the 
father  of  the  Swedish  art  of  painting." 

The  young  Klocker  started — and  this  is  almost  symbolic 
of  his  art^as  a  chancery  clerk  in  the  negotiations  connected 
with  the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  The  young  German  was 
noted  for  his  beautiful  penmanship,  and  there  is  an  inner 
connection  between  the  strokes  and  flourishes  which  he 
added  to  the  graceful  and  bombastic  diplomatic  phrases  and 
his  own  artistic  temperament.  He  studied  first  in  Amster- 
dam, came  to  Sweden  in  1651,  and  the  following  year 
painted  the  equestrian  portrait  of  Karl  Gustav  Wrangel, 
In  the  latter  part  of  this  decade  he  studied  the  contemporary 
baroque  paintings  in  Italy.  In  1661  he  was  called  to  Sweden 
and  then  painted  in  uninterrupted  succession,  sometimes 
carelessly  and  sometimes  carefully,  a  countless  number  of 
portraits.  Among  these  are  Georg  Stiernhielm,  1663  ;  Erik 
Dahlberg,  1664;  and  the  three  Charleses:  the  talented  and 
corpulent  Charles  X  Gustavus  and  his  son,  the  surly  and  duti- 
ful economist,  Charles  XI,  in  Roman  fancy  dress,  with  luxur- 
iant locks  and  fluttering  mantles,  curbing  strongly  built 
chargers;  and,  finally,  Charles  XII,  though  only  as  a  child. 
Ehrenstrahl's  Crown  Prince  Charles  (XII)  and  his  Brother 
and   Sister   Playing  with   the   Lion   of   Gothia*    shows   the 

*Here,  one  of  the  three  original  integral  parts  of  Sweden. 


A  SLIkVJa'  OF  SWl-:i)ISlI   ART 


71 


Crown  Prince   Charles    (XII)    and   His    Sister  and  Brother  Playing 

with  the  Lion  of  Gothia.     Painting  by  Ehrenstrahl,  in  the  National 

Museum  at  Stockholm 


princely  children  tumbling  about  most  graciously  with  the 
dangerous  lion,  which  in  all  humility  rejoices  at  the  honor. 
If  we  imagine  his  portraits  placed  in  a  seventeenth  cen- 
tury salon,  among  ponderous,  richly  sculptured  baroque  cab- 
inets with  projecting  mouldings,  and  hung  above  pompous 
mantlepieces  of  imitation  stone  in  the  castle  apartments, 
these  pictures,  in  spite  of  a  certain  awkwardness,  have  a  dec- 
orative value  which  transcends  the  purely  historical.  Ehren- 
strahl's  colossal  painting  The  Crucifixion,   1695,  and  The 


72  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Last  Judgment,  1696,  are  now  to  be  found  in  Stockholm's 
Storkyrka,  where  he  himself  is  buried.  In  Gripsholm  his 
painting  of  The  Well-masters  in  Medevi,  who  pour  out 
water  for  the  bathing  guests,  1683,  is  preserved.  With  this 
work  he  introduced  genre  painting  into  Sweden,  and,  strange 
to  say,  animal  painting  also,  for  in  his  rendering  of  the 
woods  and  the  birds  he  contributed  something  distinctly 
new  and  Swedish.  It  is  dilettantish,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  exe- 
cuted in  a  fresh  and  almost  modern  way.  His  Self  Portrait, 
with  allegorical  figures,  in  the  National  Museum,  bears  the 
following  inscription  in  his  own  hand  setting  forth  the  pur- 
pose of  his  art,  portraits,  and  allegories:  "This  painting  is 
executed  in  the  year  1691  by  His  Royal  Majesty's  Court- 
Intendant,  David  Klocker  Ehrenstrahl,  in  his  sixty-second 
year,  and  is  intended  to  represent  how,  out  of  love  for  the 
art  of  painting,  he  seeks  to  exalt  with  his  fantasy,  the  im- 
mortal honor  of  the  higher  authorities." 


Ill 

THE  CAROLINIAN  AGE 
THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

NIKODEMUS  TESSIN  the  Younger  was  the  son 
of  Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Elder,  mentioned  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  It  was  prophetic  of  the  royal 
favor  he  was  destined  to  enjoy  all  his  life  that  he  was  carried 
to  the  baptismal  font  by  Queen  Maria  Eleonora,  the  widow 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  He  learned  sketching  from  his 
father,  but  maintained  that  the  direct  impulse  to  enter  the 
field  of  architecture  came  to  him  at  seventeen  from  the 
Queen  Dowager  of  the  Realm,  Hedvig  Eleonora,  who  made 
her  influence  felt  so  often  and  so  happily  on  behalf  of  Swe- 
dish art.  The  young  man  arrived  in  Rome  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen, eager  to  learn,  and  was  received  with  great  kindness 
by  Queen  Christina,  through  whom  he  gained  admittance 
to  the  artist  most  eminent  in  Rome  at  the  time,  Cavaliere 
Bernini.  Concerning  the  latter  Tessin  testified  that  "with 
a  special  disposition  and  care  he  gave  me  all  the  informa- 
tion I  could  desire,  both  In  the  choice  of  the  best  works  and 
In  the  censuring  of  the  designs  for  my  studies  which  I  made 
myself." 

He  returned  to  Stockholm,  and  upon  the  death  of  his 
father  in  1681,  was  appointed  architect  of  the  Royal  Palace. 
It  thus  fell  to  his  lot  to  continue  the  construction  of  the 
Drottningholm  country  palace  and  Its  extensive  park.  In 
order  to  carry  on  studies  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  old  and 
venerable  Royal  Palace  In  Stockholm,  which  Charles  XI 
had  planned,  Tessin  went  abroad  again  in  1687,  this  time  In 
company  with  Burchardt  Precht,  a  gifted  German  sculptor 
in  wood  who  had  settled  In  Sweden. 

73  .-  .-      -    .  -  -- 


74 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Nikodemus  Tes- 
sin  the  Younger 
designed  the  pom- 
pous carved  and 
gilded  Kings'  Pews 
which  were  exe- 
cuted in  wood  by 
P  r  e  c  h  t,  and  in- 
stalled, 1684,  in 
the  Storkyrka. 
Tessin  also  made 
the  drawings  for  a 
pulpit,  sculptured 
by  Precht,  which 
was  presented  to 
Uppsala  Cathedral 
by  Hedvig  Ele- 
onora  in  the  year 
of  the  battle  of 
Poltava.  Through 
these  works  of  art 
in  particular,  baro- 
que sculpture,  as 
practised  by  Tes- 
sin and  Precht, 
came  to  exert  a 
strong  influence 
upon  the  adorn- 
ment of  our  Swed- 
ish churches. 

Concerning  the 
two  travelers'  visit 
to  Versailles,  Tes- 
sin writes,  that 
Louis  XIV  "let  the  honor  come  to  me  that  all  waters  in  the 
whole  Versailles  have  played  for  me."  Europe's  greatest 
landscape  gardener,  Le  Notre,  conducted  him  "from 
one    pleasure-grove    to    another,"    and    Tessin    declares, 


The  pulpit   in    Uppsala   Cathedral,   carved 

by    Burchardt   Precht   after    drawings    by 

Tessin  the  Younger 


A  suKVJ-:v  oi-'  swi'iDisii  Akr  75 

he  "can  nc\  cr  lully  dcsci-ihc  tlicir  iiia^iiilicciicc."  J  he  two 
\'ersailles  artists,  Charles  i.ehruii  and  Berain,  the  hitter 
Tcssin's  ideal  in  the  field  of  ornamentation,  also  interested 
him  keenly.  It  is  certain  that  what  he  learned  there  was  of 
the  greatest  moment,  both  in  the  construction  of  the  Palace 
and  the  designing  of  the  parks  which  Tessin  afterwards  laid 
out  in  Sweden.  In  Rome,  where  he  proceeded  from  Paris, 
Tessin  again  imbibed  among  palaces  and  baroque  churches 
that  disposition  for  bigness  which  was  to  characterize  his 
greatest  work,  the  Royal  Palace,  and  immediately  after  his 
return  to  his  native  country  he  began,  1688,  the  drawings  for 
the  north  facade.  Before  undertaking  the  construction  of 
the  Palace  in  earnest,  however,  he  erected  several  buildings 
of  great  value  to  Swedish  architecture,  for  example,  Gustavi- 
anum  in  Uppsala  and  Steninge  in  Uppland.  This  beautiful 
castle,  which  was  built  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, became  a  model  for  many  of  the  Swedish  mansions 
erected  during  the  eighteenth  century  and  was  called  "a 
villa  In  the  noblest  sense  of  the  term."  Its  dimensions  were 
moderate,  but  the  architectonic  form  all  through  was  per- 
fect. He  fitted  out  his  own  house,  now  the  Governor- 
General's  Palace  In  Stockholm,  with  rare  taste  and  beauty, 
and  the  magnificent  salons  were  decorated  In  the  pompous 
and  elegant  style  of  Louis  XIV,  often  with  features  borrowed 
from  the  above-mentioned  Berain.  The  Tessin  palace  was 
presented  by  King  Gustavus  III  to  the  city  of  Stockholm  to 
serve  perpetually  as  the  official  dwelling  of  the  governor- 
general.  Of  special  Interest  Is  the  construction  of  the  court- 
yard, where  the  background  consists  of  a  loggia  of  con- 
tracted perspective.  When  we  see  this,  we  are  reminded  of 
the  tendency  to  stage  effects  which  constituted  a  character- 
istic trait  of  the  baroque.  Tessin  had  a  European  reputa- 
tion, and  his  plans  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Louvre,  which 
were  shown  to  Louis  XIV  In  1705,  were  the  source  of  admir- 
ation In  France,  We  may  be  glad,  however,  that  his  pro- 
posal, like  that  of  Bernini,  was  not  accepted,  and  that  Les- 
cot's  Louvre  was  allowed  to  stand. 

The  old  royal  palace,  where  Gustavus  Vasa  and  Gustavus 


76  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Adolphus  had  lived,  had  fallen  more  and  more  into  decay 
during  the  seventeenth  century.  As  noted  above,  Nikodemus 
Tessin  the  Younger  was  commissioned  by  Charles  XI  to 
build  a  new  one,  and  the  north  wing  was  already  completed, 
when  a  fire  broke  out  in  May,  1697,  at  the  very  time  when 
the  body  of  Charles  XI  was  lying  in  state.  Tessin  then  made 
new  drawings  and  immediately  began  the  erection  of  the 
new  palace.  Its  massive  walls  had  already  risen  to  consid- 
erable height  when  the  building  had  to  be  discontinued;  for 
money  and  people  were  pouring  out  of  the  land  because  of 
the  war,  while  Charles  XII  led  Sweden  nearer  and  nearer 
toward  the  brink  of  destruction. 

In  1728,  the  year  that  Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Younger 
died,  the  work  was  again  taken  up,  now  directed  by  his  son, 
Karl  Gustav,  whose  contribution  to  Swedish  art  was  to  be 
of  great  import.  Later  the  work  was  directed  by  Karl 
Harleman,  who  was  particularly  active  in  behalf  of  the  orna- 
mentation; but  during  this  time  the  progress  of  construction 
suffered  from  lack  of  funds  due  to  the  unwise  and  poorly 
planned  offensive  war  against  Russia  in  174 1.  At  last,  in 
December,  1754,  Adolphus  Frederick  and  his  gifted  queen 
could  move  into  the  new  palace,  although  the  northwest  wing 
was  not  completed  until  1760.  Lejonbacken  (so  named 
after  the  bronze  lions  modeled  by  the  Frenchman  Foucquet 
in  Stockholm  and  set  up  in  1704)  was  completely  laid  out  in 
1830,  and  the  Palace  had  then  cost  10,500,000  rix-dollars, 
an  enormous  sum  when  we  consider  the  hard  times  in  which 
it  had  been  procured  and  the  current  value  of  the  money. 

The  Royal  Palace  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  buildings 
in  the  whole  world.  In  simple,  lofty  grandeur  the  noble 
square  of  the  palace  rises  above  the  city.  The  enormous 
quadrangle  has  four  lower  wings.  The  most  imposing  part 
is  the  fagade  opposite  Norrbro,  which  is  217  meters  long. 
It  is  divided  into  three  stories,  with  an  entresol  above  the 
lowest.  The  upper  part  of  the  windows  is  supported  by 
consoles,  as  was  customary  in  the  Roman  neo-Renaissance. 
A  small  balcony  rests  on  the  cornices  of  a  stately  Doric  por- 
tal.    Two  genii  of  fame  are  enthroned  above  the  door  to 


A  SURVJ'Y  OK  SWi'lDlSIl   AKl 


71 


The  Royal  Palace  at  Stockholm,  designed  by  Nikodemus  Tessin  the 
Younger 


this  balcony,  an  adornment  which  gives  life  to  the  stern  sur- 
faces. The  roof  slants  inward  toward  the  courtyard,  and 
the  facades  are  crowned  by  a  balustrade;  hence  the  outer 
roof,  as  in  the  Italian  models,  is  not  visible.  On  the  side 
facing  Logarden,  which  is  perhaps  the  noblest  in  its  virile 
beauty,  Corinthian  pilasters,  resting  upon  a  lower  story  in 
rustic-work,  run  through  the  two  upper  stories,  a  feature  of 
the  baroque  style  which  is  duplicated  in  the  gigantic  half- 
columns  of  the  central  part  of  the  south  facade,  forming  a 
kind  of  triumphal  arch  at  the  main  entrance  of  the  palace. 
This  side  is  ornamented,  besides,  with  reliefs  and  four  beau- 
tiful bronze  groups,  representing  the  abduction  of  women, 
modeled  by  Bouchardon.  The  west  fagade  is  adorned  with 
huge  caryatids  and  medallions  of  Swedish  kings.  On  this 
side  lies  the  outer  ballium  with  its  two  wings ;  the  south,  the 
Governor's  wing;  the  north,  that  of  the  Palace  Guard,  where 
Gustavus  III,  on  an  August  day  in  1772,  persuaded  the  offi- 
cers to  take  part  in  the  revolution. 

The  imposing  main  stairway  leads  up  from  the  west  vault, 
illuminated  by  tasteful  bronze  lanterns.  These  are  sup- 
ported by  fat  cupids,  modeled  by  the  Frenchman,  Jacques- 
Philippe   Bouchardon,   according  to  the  prevailing   French 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Great  Gallery  in  the  Royal  Palace   at  Stockholm 

method  of  sculpture,  and  instinct  with  Hfe  and  grace.  The 
grand  staircase  is  flanked  by  Ionic  and  Corinthian  cokimns 
and  pilasters.  Nor  are  the  effective  perspectives,  so  fre- 
quent in  baroque  architecture,  missing.  Kronberg's  paint- 
ings, executed  in  the  decade  of  1890,  are  fitted  into  the 
ceiling.  The  galleries  and  halls  of  the  palace  are  furnished 
in  the  heavy  elegance  of  the  baroque  style,  with  paintings  on 
the  ceilings,  richly  designed  groups  in  plaster  of  Paris  rest- 
ing on  the  mouldings,  and  with  heavy  gilding.  Other  rooms, 
with  their  decorations  often  carved  in  masterly  fashion  out 
of  unpainted  wood,  their  shell  ornaments,  and  lattice  designs, 
indicate  the  rococo  which  in  Sweden,  however,  had  hardly 
time  to  become  established,  before  the  so-called  Gustavlan 
style  (Louis  Seize)  with  its  returning  classic  features  and  its 
white  and  gold  was  generally  adopted.  The  Palace  pos- 
sesses a  collection  of  uncommonly  beautiful  Gobelin  tapes- 
tries, which,  paneled  in  the  walls  and  depicting  in  subdued 
colors  French  gallant  episodes,  formed  a  rich  background 
for  the  festivals  at  Gustavus's  court. 


A  SUkVJ'lV   Ol    SWJ'DISII    AkI 


?J 


Rococo  door  in  the  Queen's  Red  Salon  in  the  Royal  Palace,  by  Adrien 
Masreliez 


The  palace  courtyard  with  its  huge  gate-frames  of  rustic- 
work  conveys  a  strong  impression  of  simple  greatness.  The 


80  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

south  portion  of  the  palace  is  occupied  by  the  hall  of  state 
and  the  Slottskyrka,  and  beautiful  flights  of  steps  lead  up  to 
both  of  these  from  the  vault  underneath.  The  Slottskyrka, 
with  its  vault  adorned  by  Taraval's  ceiling  painting,  its  pom- 
pous pulpit,  and  its  theatrical  but  effective  altar-piece,  where 
Christ  in  the  Garden  appears  between  rent  temple-fagades 
in  high  plaster-relief  by  Larcheveque,  is  excellently  adapted 
to  the  magnificent  building  of  which  it  is  a  part.  This  Palace 
was  built  with  Herculean  efforts,  worthy  the  Sweden  of 
Charles  XII;  it  is  as  big  as  the  bold  dreams  in  Sweden's 
golden  age  of  power,  when  its  foundations  were  laid;  its 
construction  was  continued  with  the  most  tenacious  persever- 
ance, when  the  soap-bubble  of  external  greatness  burst;  and 
finally  it  was  beautified  with  exquisite  art,  when  Sweden 
began,  for  the  first  time,  to  occupy  an  important  place  in  the 
science  and  culture  of  Europe. 

The  foundations  of  the  so-called  Karolinska  Kapellet  at 
Riddarholm  Church,  which  became  the  final  resting-place  of 
the  Palatine  Charleses,  were  laid  according  to  drawings  by 
the  elder  Tessin,  but  the  structure  as  a  whole  is  the  fruit  of 
Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Younger's  studies  in  Italy.  It  is  our 
country's  most  notable  edifice  in  the  baroque  style.  Smooth 
sandstone  columns  with  Doric  capitals  embrace  the  semi- 
circular windows,  and  an  attic  with  round  windows  rests 
upon  a  triglyphical  architrave.  The  chapel  is  built  of  sand- 
stone and  is  covered  by  a  copper-clad  cupola.  This  is  sur- 
mounted by  a  golden  crown,  supported  by  a  pedestal  of  ex- 
ceptionally tasteful  form.  Vases  and  memorial  tablets,  re- 
liefs and  martial  emblems  are  found  in  great  numbers,  and 
upon  a  cloud  reproduced  in  stone  is  seen  a  genius  holding  a 
crown.  The  chapel  contains  the  Sarcophagus  of  Charles 
XII,  where  the  club  and  lion's  skin  indicate  the  Herculean 
work  of  his  life.  This  sarcophagus  was  fashioned  In 
Amsterdam  in  1735  after  drawings  by  Nikodemus  Tessin 
the  Younger.  An  attempt  was  made  In  19 16  to  replace  it 
by  a  new  one — a  grotesque  idea.  The  building  was  com- 
pleted in  1743  by  Karl  Harleman. 

An  architectural  school  grew  up,  fostered  in  the  concep- 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH   Ak'I' 


H] 


Karolinska  Kapellet,  the  Carolinian  mortuary  chapel  in 
Riddarholm   Church  in  Stockholm,  designed  by  Tessin 
the  Elder,  but  not  completed  until  1743 


tions  of  Tessin;  the  indigenous  crafts  received  guidance  from 
foreign  artists;  and,  encouraged  by  the  court,  cabinet-mak- 


82 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  yellow  soup  tureen  from  the  Rorstrand  factory  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century.     Now  in  the   National   Museum 


ing,  manufacture  of  glazed  ware  and  porcelain,  and  other 
industrial  arts,  began  to  flourish.  In  1726  the  Rorstrand 
faience  factory  was  established,  but  the  product  did  not 
become  satisfactory  until  1758,  when  the  shops  of  Marie- 
berg  entered  into  competition.  The  yellow,  round  faience 
soup  tureen,  which  is  reproduced  here,  comes  from  the  fac- 
tories of  Rorstrand.  The  faience  of  both  Marieberg  and 
Rorstrand  was  much  admired  at  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  by  those  interested  in  art.  Not  only  its  dec- 
orative form,  but  also  the  somewhat  coarser  and  more  virile 
character  of  its  surface,  proved  attractive  as  compared  with 
other  rococo  porcelain.  The  Frenchman,  Guillaume  Thomas 
Raphael  Taraval  the  Elder,  who  had  been  called  to  decorate 
the  Royal  Palace  with  ceiling  paintings  and  lintels,  through 
his  instruction  in  drawing  to  young  Swedish  art  students, 
gave  the  impulse  for  the  birth  of  the  Academy  of  Arts,  1735. 


A  SURVia'  OV  SW1^I)IS1I    ART 


S3 


Chest  with  veneer  of  beech,  birch,  and  maple,  bronze  fixtures,  and 

marble  plate.     Made   by   Georg  Haupt,   about   1779.     In    Nordiska 

Museet   at   Stockholm 


During  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Royal  Palace 
was  the  center  of  Swedish  art. 

In  the  gloomy  years  of  war  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Swedish  culture,  especially  art,  declined, 
and  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  country  recovered  from  the 
effects.  The  Carolinian  age  was  satisfied  with  crudely  exe- 
cuted paintings  that  often  revealed  the  hand  of  the  artisan. 
It  was  a  Hamburg  artist,  David  von  Krafft,  summoned  to 
Sweden  by  his  maternal  uncle  Ehrenstrahl,  who  fixed  on  can- 
vas, in  austere,  dark  portraits,  the  features  of  the  inflexible 
warrior-king,  both  as  a  young,  rather  gawky,  fighter,  and  as 
an  older  man  with  bald  crown  and  hair  whitened 
by  adversities. 

Among  the  artists  and  portrait-painters  who  were  active 
in  Sweden  and  painted  the  celebrated  men  of  the  first  part  of 


84 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


the  eighteenth  century  was  Martin  Meytens  the  Elder,  born 
at  the  Hague.  His  straightforward  and  dignified  portrait 
of  the  author  of  Atlantica,  Olof  Rudbeck  the  Younger,  is 
a  good  type  of  a  gentleman  from  Sweden's  Period  of  Great- 
ness. His  son,  Martin  van  Meytens  the  Younger,  was  born 
in  Stockholm  but  spent  most  of  his  time  abroad;  in  France 
and  Austria  he  painted  members  of  the  very  highest  society. 
Besides  his  elegant  Portrait  of  the  Artist  in  the  Academy  of 
Arts,  we  have  in  Sweden  from  his  hand  the  stately  group 
The  Grill  Family. 

Georg  Desmarees  was  also  a  pupil  of  the  Elder  Meytens. 
Among  his  portraits  may  be  mentioned  those  of  Nikodemus 
Tessin  the  Younger  and  Arvid  Horn  in  a  rather  pompous 
style,  and  the  more  austere  and  realistic  picture  of  the  wife 
of  Admiral  Appelbom,  painted  in  1723  and  now  in  the 
National  Museum.  Mikael  Dahl  chose  his  field  of  opera- 
tion in  England.  Dahl  was  a  pupil  of  Ehrenstrahl,  but  dur- 
ing his  residence  in  England  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
the  Van  Dyck  portraits  which  he  saw  there.  A  softer  ele- 
gance   is    noticeable    in    the    almost    feminine    portrait    of 


The    pleasure    palace    China,    near    Stockholm,    designed    by    Karl 
Fredrik   Adelcrantz 


A  SURVJ<:Y  ()1-   SWEDISH  ART 


85 


Charles  XII — not  painted  from  life,  however, — which  is 
now  in  the  National  Museum.  This  influence  is  still  more 
apparent  in  Dahl's  paintings  of  women,   a  good  example 

being  the  portrait,  now  pre- 
ser\ed  in  (jripsholm,  of  the 
young  Queen  Anne  of  Eng- 
land, pale,  with  dark,  waving 
locks  and  a  loosely  fitting, 
low-necked  silk  dress. 

During  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  honest 
portrait-painter  Olof  Arenius, 
a  pupil  of  David  von  Krafft, 
was  active  in  Sweden.  The  last 
type  of  the  somewhat  bom- 
bastic German-Italian  baroque 
style  was  Georg  Engelhard 
Schroder.  As  portrait  paint- 
er of  the  court,  he  put  on 
canvas  the  ruddy,  swollen 
features  of  Frederick  I.  The 
fashion  painter  of  the  period 
1 740-1 760  was  Johan  Henrik 
Scheffel,  among  whose  numer- 
ous portraits  those  of  Linne 
and  of  the  poetess  Hedvig 
Charlotta  Nordenflycht  de- 
serve special  mention. 

Karl  Fredrik  Adelcrantz  is 
perhaps  the  most  eminent 
architect  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  "patriotic  goddesses  of  song"  to  whom  Gustavus  III 
dedicated  his  favorite  creation,  the  Opera,  had  their  habi- 
tation erected  by  Adelcrantz.  Arvfurstens  Palats  Is  the  Tor- 
stensson  palace  rebuilt  by  Erik  Palmstedt — who  had  just 
finished  the  Exchange — and  gives  a  picture  of  how  the  old 
Opera  House  looked.     But  the  old  auditorium,  whose  walls 


The  tower  of  the  Storkyrka 
in  Stockholm,  rebuilt  by 
Johan   Eberhard   Carlberg 


86  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

were  decorated  by  Adelcrantz  with  exquisite  taste  in  white 
and  gold,  and  which  in  their  day  had  vibrated  both  with  the 
"report  of  Anckarstrom's  pistol"*  and  the  silver  tones  of 
Jenny  Lind,  is  gone  forever.  Adelcrantz  made  the  draw- 
ings for  Norrbro,  of  which  the  foundation-stone  was  laid 
in  1787,  and  which  was  completed  in  1806.  Its  mighty 
arches,  constructed  of  granite  blocks,  emphasize  by  their 
massive  beauty  the  thinness  and  poverty  of  our  modern 
iron  bridges.  The  Adolphus  Frederick  Church  in  Stock- 
holm is  built  after  plans  by  Adelcrantz  like  an  equibranchl- 
ated  Grecian  cross  with  cupola,  but  the  small  dimensions  and 
especially  the  consequent  low  position  of  the  windows 
weaken  the  impression  which  the  visitor  experiences  in  sim- 
ilar Italian  churches.  In  the  luxuriant  verdure  of  Drottning- 
holm  park  gleams  the  small,  red-painted  pleasure  palace, 
China,  its  rococo  forms  intermingled  with  Chinese  orna- 
ments. At  the  time  when  it  was  built  (1763)  Chinese  por- 
celain, then  called  East  Indian,  was  in  great  vogue,  and  so 
was  China's  industrial  art  in  general,  for  it  harmonized  in 
several  respects  with  the  super-refined,  sumptuous  taste  of 
the  rococo.  The  coquettish  pleasure  palace,  a  plaything  for 
adults,  was  also  a  creation  of  Adelcrantz. 

The  Storkyrka  in  Stockholm,  which  had  been  rebuilt  by 
Johan  Eberhard  Carlberg,  was  completed  in  1743.  The 
tower  Is  one  of  the  most  tasteful  and  beautiful  In  the  church 
architecture  of  the  period. 


A  reference  to  the  murder  of  Gustav  III  by  Anackarstrom,  1792. 


IV 


FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  INFLUENCES  IN  THE 
GUSTAVIAN  AGE 

IT  was  Inevitable  that  Swedish  art,  during  the  reigns  of 
Frederick  I,  Adolphus  Frederick,  and  Gustavus  III, 
should  be  stamped  with  French  characteristics.  The 
temper  of  the  age,  the  confirmed  French  sympathies  of 
Louise  Ulrica  and  Gustavus  III,  as  well  as  the  influence  of 
Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Younger's  son,  the  discriminating  art 
patron,  Karl  Gustav  Tessin,  sufficiently  explain  this  move- 
ment. Nevertheless,  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
gave  expression  to  many  of  the  most  distinctive  traits  of 
the  Swedish  temperament:  festive  exuberance,  a  taste  for 
display  and  pomp  and,  underneath  it  all,  a  lightheartedness 
tinged  with  sadness  such  as  we  find  in  Bellman's  songs. 
More  important  than  the  external  influence  of  patrons  and 
princes  was  the  fact  that  during  all  this  time  artists  directed 
their  attention  toward  Paris,  availing  themselves  of  the 
opportunity  to  use  the  excellent  French  teachers  and  to 
acquire  that  firm  technique  which  was  the  backbone  of  con- 
temporaneous French  art. 

The  first  Swedish  painter  to  become  known  in  Paris  was 
Gustav  Lundberg,  whose  pastel  paintings — a  genuinely 
rococo  form  of  art — won  the  admiration  of  his  time.  The 
portrait  of  a  lady,  which  is  reproduced  here,  is  unfinished 
but,  nevertheless,  charming.  It  is  that  of  Mile.  Hanck,  later 
the  wife  of  Assessor  Schroder,  who  "because  of  her  beauty 
was  received  by  Her  Majesty  Louise  Ulrica,  who  provided 
for  her  education,"  This  lovely  lady,  painted  just  before 
1750,  has  often  been  depicted  by  Lundberg's  crayons,  but 

87 


88 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  the  wife  of  Assessor  Schroder,  unfinished  pastel  by  Gustav 
Lundberg,  in  the  Academy  of  Art  at  Stockholm 


never  more  beautifully  than  in  this  portrait.  The  technique 
of  the  pastel  brings  out  the  softness  of  a  coquettish  woman's 
face,  glancing  roguishly  from  beneath  the  broad-brimmed 
straw  hat.  It  is  reported  that  Lundberg  was  wont  to  fall 
in  love  with  his  model,  and  that  he  then  painted  his  very 
best,  and  if  so,  we  may  assume  from  this  portrait  quite  a 
tender  passion.     Lundberg  was  accepted  in  Paris  as  early 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART  89 

as  the  third  decade  of  the  century  and  studied  with  the 
famous  Venetian  woman  pastel-painter  Rosalba  Carriera, 
who  is  excellently  represented  in  our  National  Museum, 
notably  by  the  pastel  portrait  of  the  Swedish-born  Roman 
senator,  Nils  Bielke,  in  typical  rococo  colors,  blue  and  silver. 

Lundberg  was  in  vogue  at  the  court,  where  the  young 
Swede  had  the  opportunity  to  initiate  the  exiled  Stanislaus 
Leczinski,  father-in-law  of  Louis  XV,  into  pastel-painting. 
His  reputation  was  established  when  Karl  Gustav  Tessin, 
during  the  years  1739- 1742,  guarded  the  interests  of  Sweden 
at  the  French  court  and  of  Swedish  art  among  artists  and 
art  dealers.  Tessin  procured  for  Lundberg  a  place  in  the 
French  Academy  of  Painting,  from  the  members  of  which 
the  Count  had  ordered  several  portraits  of  his  beautiful 
young  relative,  Froken  Charlotte  Fredrika  Sparre,  then  a 
resident  in  Paris.  Karl  Gustav  Tessin  himself  had  had  his 
portrait  painted  in  excellent  manner  by  Lundberg;  the  pic- 
ture is  now  in  the  possession  of  Baron  Bo  Leijonhufvud. 
Lundberg  has  also  painted  a  fine  portrait  of  his  colleague 
Boucher. 

During  his  sojourn  in  Paris,  Tessin  purchased  pictures  by 
almost  all  prominent  contemporary  French  painters,  espe- 
cially by  his  favorite  Boucher,  but  also  by  Lancret,  Chardin, 
and  others.  This  Swedish  aristocrat,  with  his  inherited  taste 
and  his  intense  interest  in  art,  through  these  purchases  of 
French  and,  not  less,  Dutch  masterpieces,  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  collection  of  paintings,  engravings,  and  sketches 
In  the  National  Museum. 

Still  more  illustrious  than  the  position  of  Lundberg  was 
that  occupied  In  the  metropolis  by  Alexander  Roslln.  From 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Roslln  was  the  painter 
of  high  society  In  Paris,  and  he  amassed  a  large  fortune  by 
his  portraits  of  the  Parisian  aristocracy.  From  the  year 
1756  dates  the  charming  potralt  of  Baroness  Neubourg- 
Cromlere,  so  fresh  and  typical  of  the  time,  with  the  black 
half-mask  in  one  hand  and  the  fan  In  the  other,  the  dainty 
figure  dressed  In  a  light  silk  gown.  Many  Roslln  connois- 
seurs consider  this  painting  the  artist's  masterpiece.     "Qui 


90 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Baroness    Neubourg-Cromleie,    by    Alexander    Roslin. 
Alfred  Berg,  Stockholm 


Owned    by 


a  figure  de  satin  doit  etre  peint  par  Roslin,"  was  the  com- 
ment in  France.  Such  a  silky  smooth  face  he  has  painted 
in  the  superb  portrait  of  Himself  with  his  Wife.  The 
beautiful  Suzanne,  who  was  a  French  artist  in  pastels,  is  busy 
finishing  a  portrait.  Her  peach-colored  complexion  is 
enhanced  by  the  light-green  silk  of  her  dress,  and  the  fea- 
tures are  refined  by  a  touch  of  gentle  dreaminess.     He  has 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


91 


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Portrait  of  the  Artist  and  His  wife,  Painting  In  Pastel,  by  Alexander  Roslln. 
At    Fano    in  Uppland 

immortalized  himself,  behind  her,  smiling  with  that  stereo- 
typed smile  of  a  man  of  the  world  which  was  so  character- 
istic of  the  rococo  and  of  his  whole  art. 


92  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Roslin  was  famous  for  his  great  ability  in  reproducing  silk 
and  satin  and  for  creating  a  general  impression  of  elegance. 
For  his  defective  reproduction  of  character  he  was  violently 
attacked  by  Diderot,  who  in  the  sixties  wrote  brilliant  criti- 
cisms on  the  Salons,  the  annual  art  exhibitions.  During  a 
visit  to  Russia  in  1775,  Roslin  had  the  opportunity  to  paint 
the  Empress  Catherine  and  the  great  men  of  Russia.  The 
portrait  of  Catherine  was  considered  a  good  likeness,  but 
the  noble  lady  herself  maintained  that  it  made  her  look  like 
"a  Swedish  kitchen  maid."  His  admirable  head  of  the 
elderly  Linne,  in  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  seems  to  chal- 
lenge to  a  certain  extent  the  censorious  remarks  of  Diderot, 
for  the  features  of  the  venerable  old  man  beam  with  kind- 
ness, and  his  clear  eyes,  which  had  been  permitted  to  "peep 
into  God's  secret  council-chamber,"  sparkle  with  that  bright 
outlook  on  life  which  was  one  of  the  most  charming  traits 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  As  an  excellent  example  of  drap- 
ery painting  the  splendid  Portrait  of  Gustavus  III  at  Grips- 
holm  occupies  a  high  place.  The  portrait  emphasizes  the 
weak,  almost  effeminate  quality  of  the  King's  figure.  Gus- 
tavus III  is  dressed  in  a  bluish-violet  costume  worked  in 
silver  and  wears  an  ermine  mantle.  Roslin  has  often 
painted  Gustavus  and  his  brothers,  and  has,  in  a  masterly 
way,  reproduced  the  old  acetous  visage  of  Louise  Ulrica, 
at  the  time  when  the  Queen,  on  unfriendly  terms  with  her 
son,  was  designated  by  the  insolent  members  of  the  court 
as  the  lady  "beyond  the  fence."  The  lustrous  side  of  the 
famous  Swede's  art  appears  in  the  picture  of  Gustavus  III 
and  his  brothers,  which  was  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Salon  in 
177 1.  This  is  a  brilliantly  painted  picture  of  the  three  ele- 
gant princes,  who  in  their  gold-embroidered  coats,  their 
breasts  gleaming  with  stars  and  decorations,  discuss  the  plan 
of  a  campaign,  while  with  obliging  condescension  they  turn 
their  smiling  faces  toward  the  spectators.  C.  R.  Lamm  in 
Nasby  has  the  largest  number  of  Roslin  paintings  in  any 
private  collection. 

Nils  Lafrensen  the  Younger  spent  the  time  from  1760- 
1790,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years,  in  Paris  where  he 


A  SURV1:Y  OV  SWEDISH  ART 


93 


Three    Women    Musicians,    gouache    by   Nils   Lafrensen   the   Younger. 
National    Museum    at   Stockholm 


In  the 


was  known  under  the  name  of  Lavreince.  His  art  also  was 
to  an  exceptional  degree  Parisian.  He  had  in  common  with 
Fragonard  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  though  he  was  far  from 


94  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

equalling  him  either  in  power  to  express  the  storms  of  pas- 
sion or  in  the  brilliant  brush  work  in  which  this  master  of 
rococo  was  preeminent.  It  was  in  salon  pictures  that  Lafren- 
sen  excelled.  He  was  most  at  home  in  the  beautiful  Louis 
seize  rooms,  where  the  windows  went  down  to  the  floor,  so 
that  one  might  see  more  of  nature  which  Rousseau  had  just 
taught  people  to  admire,  where  the  gobelin  covered  chairs 
and  sofas  with  oval  backs  and  straight  legs  were  occupied 
by  charming  countesses  and  baronesses,  who  dogmatically 
discussed  chemistry  and  physics,  the  rights  of  man,  and  not 
least,  the  philosophy  of  love.  Among  these  pictures  from 
the  world  of  salons,  which  were  often  reproduced  in  copper 
engravings  after  paintings  by  Lafrensen,  the  following  well- 
known  engravings  deserve  special  mention:  L'assemblee  au 
salon,  a  representation  of  that  pleasant  social  life  which 
flourished  during  I'ancien  regime,  and,  Qu'en  dit  monsieur 
I'abbe?  where  the  advice  of  a  gallant  abbot  is  sought  in  a 
question  of  taste  concerning  dress,  this  important  matter 
being  decided,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  at  the 
morning  toilet  of  the  young  lady. 

Lafrensen  preferred  to  paint  in  gouache.  One  of  Lafren- 
sen's  most  beautiful  gouache  paintings  is  that  in  the 
National  Museum,  representing  Three  Women  Musicians, 
who  sit  in  a  room  of  the  Gustavian  style  decorated  with  light 
green  draperies.  His  women  have  a  feminine  grace,  and 
the  small  scale  common  in  his  pictures  gives  a  stamp  of  in- 
timacy to  these  amiable  sheperdesses  of  the  salon,  who 
laughingly  tell  one  another  their  secrets,  compare  their 
charms,  and  revel  in  the  tortures  of  their  admirers.  Lafren- 
sen did  not  return  home  to  settle  in  Sweden  until  1791.  He 
then  occupied  himself  for  the  most  part  with  miniature 
painting.  Next  to  Hall,  mentioned  below,  he  is  our  fore- 
most miniature  painter.  Among  his  portraits  the  gouache 
of  Gustavus  III  in  a  Swedish  costume  of  red  and  black  is 
best  known. 

In  miniature  painting  a  Swede,  Peter  Adolf  Hall,  won, 
during  the  seventies  and  eighties,  the  greatest  fame,  and  was 
called  in  Paris,  where  he  made  his  home,  the  "Van  Dyck  of 


A  siiRvi:v  ()i<  swi:i)isii  a\<\- 


95 


Portrait  of  Fru  Hall  with  Sister  and  Daughter.     Min 
signed  "hall,  1776."     In  the  Wallace  Collection  in  L 


ature 
London 


miniature."  His  miniatures  of  contemporaries,  painted  on 
ebony,  gained  general  approbation  because  of  his  firm  and 
light  touch.  In  the  National  Museum  are  preserved  his 
portraits  of  Gustavus  Ill's  friend  the  Countess  d'Egmont, 
with  refined  features  wasted  by  illness;  his  broadly  painted 
Portrait  of  Himself;  and  the  excellent  picture  of  Sergei  in 
Swedish  costume.  The  miniature  of  Fru  Hall  with  Sister 
and  Daughter  was  purchased  for  19,000  francs  for  that 
unique  collection  of  eighteenth  century  art,  the  Wallace  Col- 
lection in  London. 

Miniature  art  was  very  popular  during  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  appealed  to  the  prevailing  taste  for 
the  pretty,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  was  much 
used  on  the  snuff-boxes  which  were  so  fashionable  at  the 
time.  During  the  latter  half  of  the  same  century,  the  period 
of  tender  declarations  of  love  and  friendship,  the  collecting 
of  miniature  portraits  became  a  mania. 


96  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  man  who  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  real  creator 
of  the  Gustavian  style  was  the  architect,  Jean  Erik  Rehn, 
who,  after  studies  in  France,  adapted  the  style  of  Louis  XVI 
to  our  conditions,  and  exerted  an  excellent  influence  through 
his  designs  for  Haupt's  furniture  and  Rorstrand's  porcelain. 
His  fine  taste  is  especially  noticeable  in  Louise  Ulrica's 
library  at  Drottningholm,  which  was  fitted  up  by  him. 

Among  the  many  excellent  artisans  in  Sweden  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  royal  court  cabinet-maker,  the  car- 
penter-artist Georg  Haupt  occupies  the  first  place.  He 
was  born  and  died  in  Stockholm,  but  received  his  education 
in  France  and  England.  Bureaus,  writing-tables,  and  secre- 
taries, executed  by  Haupt  in  the  Gustavian  style  and  inlaid 
with  wreaths,  flowers,  musical  instruments,  or  cupids, 
aroused  the  greatest  admiration  during  his  life-time,  and 
are  now  in  constant  demand  by  Swedish  collectors.  His 
masterpiece  de  luxe  was  the  gigantic  cabinet  for  minerals 
which  was  presented  by  Gustavus  III  to  the  Prince  of  Conde 
and  is  now  preserved  in  the  castle  of  Chantilly.  With  res- 
pect to  taste  and  technical  perfection  of  room-fittings  and 
furniture,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  age  can  compete  with 
the  artificers  of  the  seventies  and  the  eighties  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  Even  when  compared  with  the  larger  coun- 
tries possessed  of  old  culture,  Sweden  occupies  a  very  high 
place  in  this  field. 

Karl  Gustav  Pilo,  in  his  unfinished  but  magnificently  beau- 
tiful Coronation  of  Gustavus  III,  now  in  the  National 
Museum,  has  executed  a  masterpiece  in  the  art  of  color. 
The  painting — three  meters  high  and  five  and  a  half  meters 
long — is  extraordinarily  well  composed.  The  sunlight  plays 
upon  the  gilded  pews  carved  after  drawings  by  Tessin  the 
Younger,  and  is  refracted  in  the  white  silk  and  violet  velvet, 
giving  a  vibrating  life  to  the  great  ceremony  in  the  Stor- 
kyrka.  It  is  taken  at  the  moment  when  Archbishop  Beronius 
and  Lord  High  Chancellor  Count  Horn  hold  the  crown  over 
the  head  of  Gustavus.  Pilo  lived  for  a  long  time  in  Den- 
mark, where,  about  1770,  he  was  for  two  years  the  director 
of  the  Academy  of  Art.     His  unusually  fascinating  portrait 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ARI^  97 


The  Coronation  of  Gustavus  III,  unfinished  painting  by  Karl  Gustav 
Pilo.     In  the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 

of  the  doll-like  form  of  Sofia  Magdalena,  which  stands  out 
in  a  soft  clair-obscure  with  something  of  an  aristocratic  fowl 
in  her  eyes  and  in  the  position  of  her  head,  testifies  to  his 
great  gift  as  a  colorist. 


9g 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Sofia  Magdalena,  by  Karl  Gustav  Pilo.     In  the  collection  of  Count 
von   Rosen 


Per  Krafft  the  Elder,  born  in  Arboga,  studied  under  Ros- 
lin  In  Paris  and  became  afterward  court  painter  In  Warsaw. 
After  he  had  returned  to  Sweden,  In  1768,  he  executed  some 
excellent  portraits  In  clear,  pleasantly  harmonizing  colors, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned  that  of  Emanuel  Sweden- 


A  SURVJ<:V   Ol-'  S\Vi:i)ISIl   y\kl- 


99 


The  Mechanic  Daniel  af  Thunberg,  by  Lorens  Pasch  the  Younger,  in 
the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 


borg  and  the  bright-tinted  picture  of  Bellman  with  the  Lute, 
In  the  Gripsholm  collection. 

The  portrait  painter  Lorens  Pasch  the  Younger  was  the 
most  eminent  of  the  well  known  Pasch  family  of  artists.  He 
was  born  and  died  In  Stockholm.  Lorens  Pasch  the  Younger 
became  a  pupil  of  Pilo  in  Copenhagen  and  of  Boucher  in 
Paris.  A  pastel  of  Gustavus  III,  a  faithful  picture  of  the 
elderly  pastel  painter  Gustav  Lundberg,  both  in  the  Acad- 


100 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


emy  of  Arts,  and  a  good  portrait  of  Louise  Ulrica  In 
Rosersberg  are  among  the  best  works  of  this  industrious 
artist.  A  rare  firmness  of  character  distinguishes  the  por- 
trait Pasch  made  of  the  Mechanic  Daniel  of  Thunberg. 
Something  of  peasant  ancestry  and  something  of  middle- 
class  uprightness  and  plainness  is  brought  out  in  the  picture 
of  this  workman  who  had  ennobled  himself  solely  through 
his  own  labor.  The  green  ribbon  of  a  Knight  Commander 
of  the  Order  of  Vasa  stands  out  against  the  brown  coat. 


Danae  and  the  Shower  of  Gold,  by  Adolf  Uliik  WertmuUer.     In  the 
National  Museum  at  Stockholm 

Adolf  Ulrik  Wertmiiller  was  born  In  Stockholm  of  an 
esteemed  bourgeois  family.  He  studied  at  the  Academy  of 
Arts,  and  in  the  same  year  that  Gustavus  III  was  crowned, 
set  out  for  extensive  travels  abroad.  He  reaped  greatest 
benefit  from  his  sojourn  In  Paris,  where  he  enjoyed  the  kind- 
ness of  his  relative  Roslin,  and  himself  acquired  a  good  repu- 
tation as  a  portrait  painter.  It  was  at  the  request  of  Gusta- 
vus III  that  Marie  Antoinette  had  a  group  picture  of  her- 


A  SURVia'  ()I<   SWEDISH  ART  101 

self  and  her  children  painted  by  him.  In  1786  she  presented 
the  portrait  to  Gustavus  III.  With  national  pride  it  is  signed 
"Wertmiiller  sucdois."  In  the  last  decade  of  the  century 
Wertmiiller  set  out  for  North  America,  where  he  had  the 
opportunity  to  paint  the  great  Washington.  After  a  visit 
to  his  native  home,  he  returned  to  the  United  States  and  put 
on  exhibition,  in  1800,  in  Philadelphia,  the  unusually  charm- 
ing picture  of  Danae  and  the  Shower  of  Gold,  which  was 
executed  in  the  new  classical  tendency  of  the  time.  An 
American  patron  of  art  has  presented  the  work  to  the 
National  Museum  in  Stockholm.  Wertmiiller  married  in 
America  and  died  there  in  1 8 1 2  upon  an  estate  which  he  had 
bought  in  Delaware,  where  Sweden  possessed  a  colony  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Per  Horberg  from  Smaland,  a  self-educated  artist  who 
studied  a  little  In  the  eighties  at  the  Academy  of  Arts  in 
Stockholm,  attempting  to  imitate  the  academic  painters  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  executed  In  a  some- 
what naive  and  stiff-handed  fashion,  a  large  number  of  altar 
paintings,  now  preserved  In  the  country  churches  of  Oster- 
gotland  and  Smaland. 

Chardin's  scenes  from  bourgeois  life  find  a  counterpart 
In  Sweden  In  the  productions  of  Per  Hillestrom  the  Elder. 
His  art  Is  of  varying  value,  now  dry  costume  pictures  of  an 
exclusively  historical  Interest,  now  again  well  executed  small 
Interiors  from  the  better  middle  class  homes  In  Stockholm: 
a  mother  instructing  her  children,  old  women  telling  for- 
tunes in  coffee  grounds,  servant  girls  testing  eggs  against  the 
light,  or  fair  friends  giving  each  other  their  confidences. 
Most  frequently  a  touch  of  old-fashioned  honesty,  of  joy  and 
comfort  of  home,  are  found  in  Hillestrom's  paintings.  The 
preference  of  the  artist  for  a  moderate  scale  befitting  his 
themes  Is  another  good  characteristic  of  his  pictures. 

A  landscape  painter  who  brought  the  new  English  concep- 
tion of  nature  to  Sweden  was  a  nephew  of  the  above-men- 
tioned Haupt,  a  native  of  Stockholm,  Ellas  Martin.  In 
adherence  to  the  English  school  of  painting,  with  Its  light 
effects,  colorlstic  foundation,  and  deeper  feeling  for  nature, 


102 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


At  the  Embroidery  Frame,  by  Per  Hillestrom.     Owned  by  Froken 
Fraenckel  in  Stockholm 

Martin,  who  spent  a  long  time  in  England,  painted  several 
truly  poetical  landscapes,  often  of  astonishing  freshness  and 
with  something  of  Gainsborough's  clair-obscure.  As  a  por- 
trait painter,  he  appears  to  very  good  advantage  in  the  pic- 
ture of  Bellman.  Martin  has  designed  the  vignettes  of  the 
latter's  Temple  of  Bacchus  and  has,  besides,  engraved  the 
sketches  for  the  well  known  book  Journey  in  Italy,  by  the 
art-philosopher  and  admlral-in-chief,  Karl  August  Ehrens- 
vard,  in  which  the  author  sets  forth,  in  brief,  oracular  terms, 


A  SURVEY  OK  S\Vi:i)ISII   ARI' 


03 


Landscape    with    Waterfall,    by    Elias    Martin. 
Museum  at   Stockholm 


In    the    National 


his  one-sided  and  neo-ClassIc  but  often  ingenious  opinions 
about  art,  nature,  and  people.  Both  Martin  and  Ehrensvard 
were  friends  of  Sergei.  For  Augustin  Ehrensvard,  the  cre- 
ator of  Sveaborg,  Elias  Martin  had  painted  views  of  this 
fortress,  and  had  also  acted  as  instructor  to  his  son,  Karl 
August.  His  brother,  the  copper  engraver,  Johan  Fredrik 
Martin,  is  known  for  his  Views  of  Stockholm  in  large  out- 
line etchings  with  handpainted  water-colors  of  excellent 
artistic  effect. 


104 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Father,  by  Karl  Fredrik  von  Breda. 
National  Museum  at  Stockholm 


In  the 


Karl  Fredrik  von  Breda  went  to  England  in  1787  for  the 
purpose  of  study  and  there  enjoyed  the  guidance  of  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds.  He  painted  the  portrait  of  Sir  Joshua 
as  an  admission-piece  into  the  Swedish  Academy  of  Arts. 
Breda,  who  is  one  of  the  country's  very  best  portrait  paint- 
ers, had  acquired  in  England  a  warm  and  extremely  effective 
treatment  of  colors.     After  his  return,  in  1796,  the  aristoc- 


A  SURVEY  OK  SWllDISIl   ARF  105 

racy,  who  \aliiccl  the  noble  bearing  he  gave  to  his  portraits, 
sought  the  services  of  the  young  artist.  Besides  his  powerful 
technique,  his  broad  brush,  and  sense  of  the  picturesque,  he 
brought  from  England  that  feeling  for  nature  which  char- 
acterized the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  His  por- 
trait of  the  actress  Teresa  Vannoni,  painted  with  warmth 
and  breadth,  reveals,  through  dress  and  conception,  that  the 
times  of  Gustavus  were  past;  now  people  gave  themselves 
up  to  nature-worship  in  the  parks,  where  at  the  altars  erected 
to  friendship  they  consecrated  tender  sighs  to  the  moon  and 
stars.  Breda  has  produced  the  most  substantial  and  valuable 
in  Swedish  painting  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
His  Portrait  of  My  Father,  painted  1797,  with  Spanish 
cane  and  the  tall  black  hat  that  came  originally  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  lands,  indicates  the  invasion  of  romanticism, 
and  produces  an  almost  ghost-like  effect  with  its  pale  face 
and  its  figure,  wrapped  in  a  wide,  black,  Spanish  cloak 
against  the  background  of  a  dark,  stormy  sky.  From  an 
artistic  viewpoint,  it  is  an  important  work.  During  his  later 
period  his  portraits  often  received  an  unpleasantly  reddish 
tint. 

During  the  decade  of  1790,  Per  Krafft  the  Younger,  the 
son  of  Per  Krafft  the  Elder,  painted  his  best  portraits,  es- 
pecially that  of  the  architect  Deprez,  now  in  the  Academy 
of  Arts.  He  received  guidance  from  the  great  David. 
Krafft  adopted  a  more  and  more  inflexible  method  of  paint- 
ing during  the  last  part  of  his  extraordinarily  long  artistic 
career. 


SERGEL 

THE  first  and  greatest  name  in  the  plastic  art  of  Sweden 
is  Johan  Tobias  Sergei.  Born  in  Stockholm  of  German 
parents — his  father  was  a  gold-embroiderer  from  Jena 
— and  educated  in  Sweden  by  French  teachers,  he  received 
his  deepest  art-impressions  later  in  Rome  from  the  old  Greek 
sculptures,  which  were  the  object  of  so  much  admiration 
and  not  less  of  learned  study,  especially  in  Germany,  during 
the  last  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Sergei's  indi- 
viduality, however,  was  so  strong  that  he  was  able  to  fuse 
these  different  impressions  in  his  art.  He  succeeded  in 
breathing  warmth  and  life  into  his  work,  and  was  inspired 
by  the  antique  in  a  more  profound  way  than  was  generally 
the  case  with  his  contemporaries.  For  this  reason  his  figures 
do  not  become  stiff  and  cold  imitations.  Over  the  marble 
lies  the  rosy  shimmer  of  the  days  of  Gustavus,  supple 
strength  in  the  male  forms  and  softness  in  the  female,  widely 
different  from  the  smoothness  of  the  Italian  Canova  or  the 
magnificent  but  cold  reconstructions  of  Thorvaldsen. 

During  the  years  of  his  apprenticeship  under  the  French 
sculptor,  Pierre  Hubert  Larcheveque,  he  assisted  the  latter 
with  the  large  altar-relief  in  plaster  of  Paris,  Christ  in  the 
Garden,  for  the  Slottskyrka.  Sergei  received,  besides,  the 
opportunity  to  assist  in  the  rough  work  on  the  statue  of 
Gustavus  Vasa,  unveiled  1774,  and  that  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  unveiled  1796,  neither  very  successful.  In  these  statues, 
Larcheveque  was  not  on  a  par  with  the  excellent  contem- 
porary French  sculptors,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  its  defective  historical  sense,  it  was 

106 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART  107 

almost  impossible  to  obtain  a  picture  of  "old  king  Cjosta" 
that  was  national  and  true  to  history.  Larchevccjue's  great- 
est distinction  consists  in  having  been  the  teacher  of  Sergei, 
and,  in  1758,  when  but  a  youth  of  eighteen,  Sergei  was 
allowed  to  accompany  his  instructor  to  Paris.  There,  with- 
out a  doubt,  he  received  strong  impressions  from  I'alconct 
and  Pigalle,  the  great  French  rococo  sculptors,  whose  grace 
and  sensuous  elegance  were  bound  to  exert  an  influence  upon 
the  precocious  young  Swede.  In  1767  Sergei  went  to  Rome 
and  remained  there  until  1778.  There  the  greatness  of 
antiquity  was  revealed  to  him  partly  by  means  of  the  previ- 
ously mentioned  scholarly  currents  in  art. 


The   Faun,    statuette   in  marble  by  Johan  Tobias   Sergei.     In   the 
National  Museum  at  Stockholm 

In  the  year  1770  The  Reclining  Faun  was  finished.  The 
figure  attracted  general  attention  by  its  joyousness  and  stamp 
of  energy.  Notwithstanding  its  small  size — not  quite  a 
meter  in  length — it  produces  a  very  striking  effect  through 
Its  animation  and  its  pagan,  exuberant  joy  of  life.    There  are 


108  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

rare  unity  and  buoyancy  in  this  splendid  work  of  art.  In 
accordance  with  the  custom  of  Bernini  and  the  Italian-French 
sculptors,  the  marble  is  polished,  A  short  time  later  Sergei 
modeled  the  hero-type  Diomedes  and  began  work  on  a 
group,  Cupid  and  Psyche,  originally  ordered  by  Madame  du 
Barry  but  acquired  by  Gustavus  III,  when  the  death  of 
Louis  XV  prevented  her  from  purchasing  the  statue.  The 
theme  is  taken  from  the  old  significant  myth  about  Cupid 
who  is  obliged  to  leave  Psyche  after  she  has  sought,  out  of 
curiosity,  to  ascertain  his  origin  and  name.  Psyche's  trem- 
bling before  the  inevitable  and  Cupid's  majestic  repellent 
gesture  are  combined  in  plastic  harmony.     Kellgren  wrote : 

Behold,  alas!  in  desperation, 

Before  the  god  of  love  she  lies. 

In  pardon-seeking  supplication 

For  slighting  her  helov  d's  advice. 
The  magnificent  group  Mars  and  Venus  was  also  modeled 
in  Rome,  though  carved  in  marble  at  a  much  later  date.  It 
represents  the  goddess  of  beauty  engaged  in  the  battle  about 
Troy,  as  she  sinks  fainting  into  the  arms  of  the  god  of  war. 
The  contrast  between  masculine  strength  and  feminine  soft- 
ness, the  motif  that  was  so  popular  with  the  neo-Renais- 
sance  and  the  rococo,  appears  here  to  excellent  advantage. 
Sergei  returned  home  from  Rome  by  way  of  Paris,  where, 
as  an  example  of  his  art,  he  modeled  his  statue  of  Otryades 
who,  dying  on  the  battlefield,  inscribes  upon  his  shield  the 
tidings  of  victory.  This  dramatic  representation  created  a 
lively  sensation  in  the  Academy  where  it  was  exhibited. 
Among  those  present  on  this  occasion  was  the  famous  sculp- 
tor Pigalle,  as  also  Pajou,  Houdon,  Chardin,  and  Roslin. 
This  work  gained  for  Sergei  admittance  into  the  Academy. 
Sergei  returned  to  Sweden  in  1778.  On  the  way  he  vis- 
ited London,  where  he  met  Reynolds.  The  classical  treas- 
ures that  had  been  taken  from  the  Parthenon  by  Lord  Elgin 
were  not  put  on  exhibition  until  18 12;  consequently  Sergei 
could  not  see  them.  He  had  no  opportunity  to  see  either 
these  works  of  sculpture  or,  for  that  matter,  many  of  the 
best  Greek  statues  of  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  which. 


A  SLIRV1:Y  (W  SWEDISH  ART 


109 


Mars  and  Venus,  marble  group  by  Sergei.     Owned  by  Count 
A.  F.  Wachtmeister 

according  to  the  belief  of  our  time,  represent  the  culmina- 
tion of  classic  art  It  was  the  weaker  neo-antique  that  Sergei 
and  his  contemporaries  tried  to  imitate.  Fortunately  his 
art  contains  much  of  the  good  French  traditions. 

In  1780  the  King  ordered  the  Venus  which  bears  the 
pretty  rococo  head  of  Countess  Ulla  von  Hopken,  nee  von 
Fersen.  In  this  figure  Sergei  has  immortalized  one  of  Kell- 
gren's  "three  graces."  For  the  statue  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  Sergei  modeled  during  the  decade  of  1780  the  group 


no  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Axel  Oxenstlerna  Dictating  to  History  the  Deeds  of  the 
Hero,  a  group  which  has  only  in  our  day  been  set  up  in  its 
right  place  at  the  base  of  the  statue.  The  decorative  genii 
who  bore  aloft  the  monogram  of  Gustavus  above  the  cur- 
tain of  the  Opera,  and  have  now  been  removed  to  the  same 
place  in  the  new  Opera  House,  also  date  from  this  period. 
In  another  building,  the  Adolphus  Frederick  Church,  also 
the  creation  of  Adelcrantz,  Sergei  executed  a  monumental 
piece  of  work  in  moulded  lead,  namely  the  Memorial  to  the 
Philosopher  Rene  Descartes,  who  died  in  Stockholm  in  1650. 
The  theme  of  a  genius  lifting  the  veil  of  ignorance  from  the 
globe  and  letting  the  torch  of  enlightenment  flame  over  the 
sphere  was  certain  to  make  a  strong  appeal  to  Sergei,  and 
indeed  this  monument  glows  with  life  and  possesses  splendid 
decorative  qualities.  Sergei  executed  also  the  altar-piece  for 
the  same  church,  where  The  Resurrection  of  Christ  is  repre- 
sented in  high  relief  in  plaster  of  Paris.  Christ,  a  beard- 
less youth  of  Grecian  type,  ascends  toward  heaven  with  out- 
spread arms,  surrounded  by  angels.  The  form-language  of 
the  figures  is  classical,  but  the  same  is  true  of  the  first  sculp- 
ture of  the  Christian  church.  Yet  the  beautiful  gigantic 
relief  is  not  Christian  according  to  the  conceptions  of  our 
time. 

In  1 7 83- 1 7 84  Sergei  had  the  opportunity  to  accompany 
Gustavus  III  upon  his  travels  in  Italy.  In  Rome  Sergei  was 
royal  councillor  in  matters  of  taste,  and  among  other  things 
expressed  his  most  passionate  delight  over  the  recently  dis- 
covered statue  of  the  sleeping  Endymion,  which  the  king 
later  ordered  to  be  purchased.  Two  paintings  in  the  French 
section  of  the  National  Museum  are  a  reminder  of  Gustavus' 
visit  in  Rome,  one  of  them  by  Desprez  representing  Gusta- 
vus III  Attending  Christmas  Matins  in  St.  Peter's  Cathe- 
dral, 1783.  Vapors  of  incense  float  about  Bernini's  bronze 
baldachin,  as  Pius  VI  raises  the  holy  vessel  where  the  miracle 
of  transsubstantiation  takes  place  to  the  music  of  the  bells. 
The  other  painting  is  by  Gagneraux.  It  shows  the  King 
and  his  entourage,  among  them  Sergei,  inspecting  the  won- 
derful collection  of  sculpture  in  the  Vatican,  escorted  by  the 


A  SURVi:V   Ol-    SWI'IDISII   Akl 


111 


Portrait  of  the  Countess  Charlotta  Fredrika  von 

Fersen,    nee    Sparre.      Marble    bust    by    Sergei. 

Owned  by  Baron  Hopken 


Pope.    In  Rome  Sergei  met  the  young  Canova  and  Angelika 
Kauffmann. 

After  his  return  home  Sergei  was  employed  chiefly  in  the 
field  of  portraits.  His  splendid  portrait  busts  and  portrait 
medallions  of  Sweden's  most  eminent  men  were  highly  val- 
ued, and  the  admiration  aroused  by  his  noble  art  contributed 
to  elevate  the  standing  of  artists  in  the  land.  Particular 
mention  may  be  made  of  his  realistic,  strongly  characterized, 
bust  of  the  Countess  Charlotta  Fredrika  von  Fersen,  who  as 
a  girl — Froken  Sparre — had  been  with  her  relative  Karl 
Gustav  Tessin  In  Paris,  where  several  French  artists  had 
reproduced  her  piquant  features.  Now,  In  1787,  she  Is  rep- 
resented as  an  aged  grande  dame,  still  so  pleasing  and  beau- 


112  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


i 

i 

^ 

'  ■"■^•-  -f-w".. 

"^ 

b^.   ^     - 

fe'  ' 

:_M 

Gustavus  III,  portrait  statue   in  bronze  by  Sergei. 
On  Siceppsbron,  Stockholm 


tiful  beneath  the  becoming  widow's  veil  that  she  fully 
deserves  to  be  a  mother  to  those  young  ladies  who  enrap- 
tured the  Stockholm  of  1780,  the  "graces"  Ulla  von  Hopken 
and  Countess  Lowenhielm. 

Sergei  several  times  perpetuated  the  figure  of  Gustavus 
III,  and  succeeded  admirably — not  least  in  "the  living  Gus- 
taviad  in  bronze"  on  the  Skeppsbro  at  Stockholm's  Quay, 
giving  artistic  unity  of  conception  to  the  complex  nature  of 
this  King,  who  bore,  "the  laurels  of  the  theatre  in  powdered 
hair  strangely  combined  with  the  real,  true  ones."  It  is  a 
Swedification  of  Apollo  di  Belvedere,  ordered  by  the  citi- 
zens of  Stockholm  In  1790  and  set  up  in  1802  on  the  spot 
near  Svensksund  where  the  King  landed  as  victor.     Among 


A  SUKV1-:V  ()l<   SWEDISH   ART  113 

the  portrait  medallions  are  the  ji;ciii;il  countenance  of  Kell- 
<2;ren  and  the  li<j;urc  of  lU'llman,  (he  wine-god  of  tile  North, 
with  \  ine  lea\  cs  in  his  hair.  In  his  pen  sketches  Sergei  has 
shown  us  the  more  intimate  sides  ol  the  poet  Bellman,  in 
his  morning-after  mood,  and  he  has  also  made  many  draw- 
ings of  himself  and  his  noted  friends,  the  admirer  of  the 
antique  Karl  August  Ehrensviird,  the  Dane  Abildgaard, 
and  many  others  who  frequented  the  artist's  hospitable 
home.  In  general,  his  sketches  and  washes,  at  times  gro- 
tesque, but  always  executed  with  a  marvelous  sense  of  the 
picturesque,  constitute  a  very  valuable  complement  to  his 
productions  as  a  sculptor.  Sergei  died  on  the  26th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1 8 14.  Active  at  a  time  when  pedantic  imitation  of 
the  antique  began  to  be  considered  as  the  highest  art,  he 
succeeded,  thanks  to  his  strong,  healthy,  and  sensuous  nature, 
in  developing  his  personality  so  that  he  stands  out  as  the 
foremost  artist  our  country  has  possessed,  and  occupies  an 
uncontested  place  of  rank  in  the  European  art  of  his  time. 


VI 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 

UNDER   the   influence    of   neo-Classic   ideas,    Swedish 
architecture,  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury,   began   to   be   dominated   by   antique   forms    in 
the  exterior  of  the  buildings  as  wellas  in  the  interior  dec- 
orations.      Meanwhile    the    materials    employed    became 
poorer,  while  the  power  of  invention  lessened. 

Olof  Tempelman,  a  native  of  Ostergotland,  built,  in  1790, 
the  Chancery  near  Mynttorget,  with  its  sober  Doric  temple 
facade.  For  Gustavus  III,  who  lived  occasionally  in  a  little 
idyllic  wooden  house  at  Haga  near  Brunnsviken,  Tempel- 
man erected  the  so-called  King's  Pavilion,  which  was  com- 
pleted in  1790.  The  French-born  Jean-Louis  Desprez,  who 
was  to  have  built  the  giant  palace  Haga  for  Gustavus  III 
in  historical  classic  style,  got  no  further  than  the  foundation, 
which  was  laid  in  1786.  In  the  same  period  Uppsala  Con- 
servatory was  begun  after  drawings  by  Desprez  in  the 
Doric  style.  Desprez  was  one  of  Sweden's  best  painters 
of  stage  decorations;  especially  beautiful  were  his  decora- 
tions for  the  opera  Gustavus  Vasa  which  was  performed  in 
1786,  Desprez  has  painted  also  the  magnificently  com- 
posed pictures  Gustavus  III  Attending  Christmas  Matins 
in  St.  Peter's  Cathedral  (see  page  1 10) — the  artist  had  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  King  on  his  Italian  journey — and 
the  Naval  Battle  of  Hogland  with  cheering  marines  amidst 
huge  fluttering  sails.  The  latter  has  been  preserved  In 
Rosersberg  Castle.  Louis  Adrlen  Masrellez,  son  of  Adrlen 
Masrellez,  born  In  Paris,  painter,  art-theorist,  and  decor- 
ator, has  decorated  a  number  of  rooms  In  the  King's  Pavil- 

"4 


A  sukvi'iv  or  s\vi:i)isii  .\\<\ 


1  13 


Wall   decoration   in  "Gustavus   Ill's   Divan" 
Adrien  Masreliez 


at    Haga ,   by    Louis 


Ion  at  Haga  with  some  excellent,  neo-antique  ornamental 
friezes  which  call  to  mind  Raphael  or  the  loggias  of  Pompeii. 
Though  the  architecture  of  the  first  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  Is  marked  by  a  certain  arldness  and  frigidity, 


116 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Salon   in   Rosendal   Palace   at   Djurgarden,   built   by   Fredrik   Blom. 

Furniture  in  the  Empire  style.     Frieze,  The  Conning  of  the  Asas,  by 

Hjalmar  Morner 


and  though  It  suffers  from  a  certain  meagreness  especially 
with  respect  to  material,  nevertheless  It  does  not  lack  dis- 
tinction. Fredrik  Blom  built,  during  the  decade  of  1820,  the 
beautiful  old  Animal  House  near  LlUa  Nygatan  In  Stock- 
holm, the  Rosendal  Summer  Palace  In  Djurgarden  park, 
and  the  splendidly  located  Skeppsholm  Church  which  has  a 
grandeur  of  form  often  lacking  In  the  Swedish  houses  of 
worship  In  the  later  nineteenth  century.  Karl  Kristofer 
Gjorwell  was  a  son  of  the  well-known  author  who  has  been 
called  "the  patriarch  of  learned  labors."  In  the  Queen's 
Pavilion  at  Haga  and  in  the  Military  Hospital  on  Kungs- 
holmen,  especially  in  the  latter,  which  was  completed  In 
1834,  he  has  attained  that  severe  beauty  which  was  the  Ideal 
of  the  empire  style. 

Among  Sergei's  pupils  none  equalled  the  master,  although 
Johan  Niklas  Bystrom  has  executed  some  good  work,  and 


A  SLIKVJ'IV   Ol'  SWI'IDISII    ARI' 


117 


Statue  of  the  actress  Emilia  Hogquist,  by 

Johan  Niklas  Bystrora.     In  the  Dramatic 

Theatre  at  Stockholm 


especially  his  group  The  Sleeping  Juno  with  the  Child  Her- 
cules at  her  Breast  has  a  touch  of  greatness  that  is  doubly 
refreshing  in  view  of  the  prevailing  taste  for  the  banal  and 
the  insipidly  sweet.  There  is  often  something  weak  and 
impersonal,  however,  in  his  female  figures,  and  it  cannot  be 


118 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Thor,  marble  statue  by  Bengt  Eiland  Fogelberg.       At  the 
National  Museum,  Stockholm 

denied  that  Swedish  sculpture  about  1850,  even  though  not 
compared  with  great  names  like  Rude,  Barye,  or  Schadow, 
had  about  it  something  reminiscent  of  big,  chalky  caramels, 
the  sugar  being  predominant  in  the  work  of  Bystrom  and 
the  chalk  in  that  of  Fogelberg.  While  he  lived  In  Rome, 
Bystrom's  happy,  hospitable  home  was  a  center  of  Swedish 
artists.  The  well  known  Bust  of  Bellman  in  Djurgarden, 
unveiled  in  1829,  is  from  Bystrom's  hand.  He  has  made  a 
delightful  little  statue  which  is  undoubtedly  a   representa- 


A  sLiKVi;v  oi"  s\vi':i)isii  j\\<'i  wj 

tion  of  iMiiilic  I  higijuist  in  the  role  of  Aventurine  in  'I'he 
Polka.  It  was  in  1845  that  the  fascinating  and  idolized 
actress  appeared  in  this  play — the  last  in  which  she  took 
part — and  enraptured  the  audience  by  her  grace  in  the  polka, 
a  dance  which  was  entirely  new  at  the  time.  She  died  the 
following  year  in  Italy. 

Bengt  Erland  Fogelberg  is  noteworthy  chieHy  for  his 
efforts  to  find  a  plastic  form  for  the  gods  of  Norse  myth- 
ology. The  question  of  employing  themes  from  Norse  an- 
tiquity in  sculpture  was  zealously  discussed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century.  Geijer  wrote,  in  1817,  a  treatise 
"Concerning  the  Employment  of  the  Norse  Myths  in  Fine 
Arts"  in  which  he  said  that  these  themes  ought  to  be  made 
use  of,  but  warned  against  formlessness  and  exaggeration. 
He  shows  himself  surprisingly  far-sighted  in  his  censure  of 
the  prevailing  unnatural  imitation  of  the  antique,  not  least 
in  the  domain  of  painting,  where  the  life  element,  color,  was 
ignored,  and  the  figures  resembled  "painted  stone  images." 
In  the  exhibition  arranged  by  the  Gothic  Society  in  1818, 
Fogelberg  exhibited  models  for  statues  of  Odin,  Thor,  and 
Freyr,  the  latter  being  exchanged  afterwards  for  Balder. 
The  statues  were  later  cut  In  marble,  and  now  stand  on  the 
staircase  In  the  National  Museum.  A  somewhat  theatrical 
pose  spoils  the  Impression  of  Balder,  and  this  Is  still  more 
true  of  Odin.  Fogelberg  has  succeeded  best  with  Thor;  he 
is  a  type  of  a  Northern  god,  full  of  power  and  with  conscious 
pride  in  his  bearing  and  yet  with  something  of  a  peasant's 
good  humor  about  him.  The  statue  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
In  Gothenburg  and  Bremen,  of  Charles  XIV  Johan  and 
Blrger  Jarl  In  Stockholm,  all  three  unveiled  In  1854,  are 
well  known  works  of  Fogelberg.  His  art  has  a  certain  dry- 
ness, and  does  not  attract  or  charm  like  that  of  Sergei's,  but 
the  new  types  which  he  succeeded,  after  much  hard  labor, 
in  giving  form  have  been  of  Importance  In  Swedish  art. 

Erik  Gustav  Gothe's  rather  tame  art  never  rose  to  any 
high  artistic  level.  The  dull  statue  of  Charles  XII  In  Kungs- 
tradgarden  In  Stockholm,  unveiled  in  1821,  and  the  perfor- 
ated spire  of  the  Riddarholm  Church,  for  which  he  made 


120 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Ruined  Castle,  by  Karl  Johan  Fahlcrantz.     In  the  collection  of 
Thorsten   Laurin 


the  drawings,  are  his  best  known  productions.  The  latter 
was  erected  after  the  beautiful  old  spire  had  burned 
down. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  first  decades  of  the 
century  are  characterized  by  a  prevalence  of  dilettantism  and 
extremely  low  standards  in  art.  After  the  splendor  of  the 
Gustavian  age,  Sweden  had  a  period  of  self-satisfied  and 
Philistine  mediocrity  in  the  field  of  painting.  All  the  more 
absurd,  therefore,  seem  the  bombastic  eulogies  of  the 
Academy  of  Arts,  when  it  condemns  or  comments  in  high- 
sounding  phrases  the  feeble  art  products  of  the  time. 

In  Alexander  Laureus,  who  was  born  in  Abo  and  died  in 
Rome,  we  notice  an  agreeable  change  from  the  usual  poorly 
depicted  allegories  and  the  still  more  tedious  "historical" 
paintings  of  the  time.  In  The  Dance,  executed  in  1814,  one 
of  Laurens's  best  pictures,  the  artist  experiments  with  the 


A  si!Kvi:v  ()i-  s\vi:i)isii  Akr  121 

effects  of  ciiiulle  light,  a  problem  in  illiuiiination  witii  vvliich 
he  was  much  engrossed.  The  prevalent  conditions  at  the 
ball  seem  to  be  very  simple,  unpretentious,  and  even  naive, 
but  the  fresh-colored  beauties  in  their  simple  white  flutter- 
ing dresses  are  enjoying  it  thoroughly,  while  the  partners 
in  their  tight-fitting  garments  hesitate  between  "Astrild" 
and  the  goblet,  as  the  punch-glass  was  so  grandiloquently 
called  in  those  days.  The  cold,  tame  allegories  and  the 
often  wooden  portraits  of  the  highly  esteemed  Stockholm 
artist  Fredrik  Westin  and  his  colored  and  sweetish  nude 
figures,  bedaubed  with  "Professor  Westin's  human  paint," 
aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  his  contemporaries,  a  fact  which 
does  not  speak  very  well  for  their  artistic  judgment. 

Karl  Johan  Fahlcrantz,  born  in  Dalecarlia,  was  influ- 
enced by  the  melancholy  of  Ruisdael  and  the  evening  sun- 
light of  Claude  Lorrain,  and  became  the  painter  of  the 
romantic  landscape.  A  typical  picture  is  The  Ruined 
Castle  at  the  Foot  of  a  Mountain.  Warm,  brown  and 
violet  tones  and  a  kind  of  universally  musical  atmosphere 
are  characteristics  of  this  artist,  who  was  so  much  admired 
in  his  own  time.  Apropos  of  Fahlcrantz's  paintings,  Geijer 
wrote  the  following  profound  words:  "Painting  is  the  art 
of  developing  the  inner  light  or  of  stealing  the  light  of  all 
things,  not  only  the  external,  but  the  light  which  beams 
from  within.    All  good  painting  is  soul  painting." 

The  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  "harmless" 
period  for  art  in  our  land.  Among  the  few  architects  of 
any  importance  was  Axel  Nystrom  the  Elder.  He  revised 
and  carried  out  Tessin's  plans  for  Lejonbacken — the  north 
passage  to  the  Royal  Palace,  so  called  from  its  two  bronze 
lions — and  attained  a  great  effect  by  the  use  of  excellent 
material,  smooth-cut  granite,  as  well  as  by  firm,  dignified 
lines.  The  Bazar  on  Norrbro,  razed  when  the  Riksdag 
building  was  erected,  was  by  Axel  Nystrom. 

Interest  in  art  and  the  desire  to  purchase  it  were  at  this 
time  negligible  among  the  general  public,  and  the  few  artists 
to  be  found  lived  by  themselves  in  Rome  as  academic 
fellows,  industriously  wielding  the  brush  on  pictures  repre- 


122  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

senting  Italian  beggars  and  robbers,  romantic  opera-figures 
placed  in  a  dazzling  evening  light.  The  paintings  are  char- 
acterized in  general  by  a  mixture  of  aridness,  gaudy  color- 
ing, and  minuteness  of  detail,  with  little  individualization. 
Naturally,  there  were  in  the  whole  group  of  those  who  made 
their  living  by  painting  some  men  of  talent  who  felt 
oppressed  by  the  small  town  stagnation  in  the  art  life  of 
Rome,  where  in  reality  only  sculpture  flourished,  and  where 
Thorvaldsen  and  Bystrom  were  hospitable  hosts  for  the 
young  Scandinavian  painters.  There  lived  in  the  twenties 
the  witty  dilettante  Captain  Count  Hjalmar  Morner  whose 
Stockholm  Sketches,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  compared  In  an 
artistic  sense  with  those  of  Daumier  and  Gavarni,  but  are, 
nevertheless,  full  of  amusing  and  typical  features.  They 
picture  gentlemen  who  in  thick  overcoats  drink  their  warm 
toddies  in  the  simple  Stockholm  taverns  of  1830,  or  quiet 
tea  circles  with  musical  entertainment,  or  lively  ferry-women 
with  strong  arms  and  fiery  temperaments.  His  paintings — 
among  them  the  frieze  The  Coming  of  the  i?^sir  in  the 
Rosendal  Palace — possess  less  interest.  Considerably  more 
prominent  as  an  artist  was  Morner's  faithful  friend  and 
comrade  Sodermark. 

Olof  Johan  Sodermark  was,  during  the  forties  and  fifties, 
the  best  portrait  painter  in  Sweden.  When  he  was  invited 
to  Rome  by  Bystrom,  he  had  already  distinguished  himself 
as  a  soldier  and  received  the  medal  of  honor  for  bravery 
in  the  war  with  Norway  in  18 14 — several  painters  of  that 
period  were  military  men — and  now  aroused  general  atten- 
tion by  his  carefully  painted  and  delicately  characterized 
portraits.  A  combination  of  neo-ClassIc  purity  of  form 
and  romantic  sentimentality  Is  found  In  a  portrait,  typical 
of  the  time,  of  Bystrom's  friend  Karollna  Bygler  in  greyish 
lavender  silk  dress  with  puffed  sleeves,  outlined  against  the 
yellow  satin  of  the  sofa.  Sodermark  perhaps  excelled  most 
in  his  portraits  of  men.  The  great  men  and  women  of 
Sweden  had  their  pictures  painted  by  him.  Among  these 
may  be  mentioned  especially  the  portrait  of  Berzelius,  the 
conservative  politician  von  Hartmansdorff,  Jenny  Lind  as 


A  suKVia'  oi'  s\vi;i)isii  a\<\- 


123 


Portrait  of   Karolina  Bygler,  by  Olof  Johan  Sodermark.     In 
the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 


Norma,  and,  finally,  Fredrlka  Bremer — one  of  the  last  por- 
traits that  Sodermark  painted. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Paris  was 
not  so  popular  among  the  artists  as  before.  A  Swedish 
painter,  however,  Per  Gabriel  Wickenberg,  made  a  great 
success  there.  He  died  young,  but  managed,  through  the 
study  of  nature  and  of  the  old  Dutch  landscapes,  to  educate 
himself  so  that  he  became  an  artist  of  real  merit,  even 
though  he  could  not  compete  in  originality  with  the  French 


124 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Moonlight  after  Rain,  by  Per  Gabriel  Wickenberg.    In  the  National 
Museum  at  Stockholm 

masters,  Corot  and  others,  who  were  not  held  in  high  regard 
at  the  time.  In  his  winter  motifs  and  in  his  Moonhght  after 
Rain,  in  the  National  Museum,  he  avoids  the  theatrical 
features  which  spoil  the  greater  part  of  the  contemporaneous 
landscape  painting,  and  his  pictures  belong  to  the  truest 
nature  descriptions  that  Swedish  art  had  produced  up  to 
that  time. 

Gustaf  Vilhelm  Palm  was  the  most  esteemed  landscape 
painter  among  the  Swedes  who  lived  in  Rome.  His  Italian 
views  have  something  harsh  and  glaring,  but  are  animated 
by  his  feeling  for  picturesque  architecture.  The  reminis- 
cences of  Rome  in  1840  became  determinative  of  his  long 
artistic  career.  His  landscapes  from  the  Malaren  valley 
display  a  tone  which  reminds  one  of  the  Campagna  and 
Lake  Albano.  He  was  most  successful  in  his  Stockholm 
view  The  Riddarholm  Canal  at  the  Middle  of  the  Century 
with  Palmstedt's  beautiful  stone  bridge  over  the  canal — a 
bridge,  constructed  in  1784  and  razed  in  1867  to  make  room 
for  that  monster  of  bad  taste  which  has  disfigured  the  place 
for  half  a  century. 


A  SURVj:V   Ol'    SWl'lDlSIl   ART 


125 


The  Nix  and  ^gir's  Daughters,  by  Nils  Johan   Blommer.     In  the 
National   Museum   at   Stockholm 


The  animal  painter  Karl  Wahlbom  made  an  important 
contribution  to  Swedish  figure-painting.  Wahlbom  was 
initiated  into  the  old  Norse  sagas  by  his  friend,  the  gymnast 
and  poet  Ling,  and  drew  the  illustrations  for  Ling's  poem 
The  ^sir.  In  his  popular  painting,  The  Battle  of  Liitzen, 
1855,  he  shows  his  great  ability  to  represent  the  different 
movements  of  horses.  His  art  marks  a  step  forward  in 
technique.  Nils  Johan  Blommer  gave  form  to  the  themes 
of  the  Norse  folksong,  and  in  his  romantic  painting  The 
Nix  and  vEgir's  Daughters,  1850,  in  the  National  Museum, 
he  created  a  work  full  of  poetic  feeling,  which — attractive 
even  to  us^appealed  in  the  highest  degree  to  the  tempera- 
ment of  the  age.  On  the  other  hand,  his  well  known  Freja 
Drawn  by  Cats,  1852,  in  the  National  Museum,  is  rather 
too  suggestive  of  a  caramel-painting. 

The  Varmlander  Uno  Troili  was  the  most  prominent  of 
Sodermark's  pupils,  but  an  exaggerated  distrust  of  his  own 
ability  prevented  him  from  taking  the  place  he  might  have 


126 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Fru  Anne-Marie  Hallstrom,  by  Uno  Tioili,  in  the  National  Museum 
at    Stocliholm 


filled.  He  studied  in  Italy,  but  learned  most,  perhaps,  in 
Paris.  Troili's  portraits  have  something  firm  and  honest 
in  their  execution,  and  the  best  of  them  show  also  an  exqui- 
site taste  in  the  choice  of  color.  A  colored  background 
throws  into  relief  his  pictures  of  imperious  squires  and  their 
wives.  During  the  fifties  and  sixties  he  was  Sweden's  best 
portrait  painter.  His  brush  knew  how  to  bring  out  the 
monumental  as  well  as  the  soulful.     Among  his  works  are 


A  SUKVia    Ol-   SWl^DISII   A\<i  \17 

Secretary  Myliniiaii,  (he  linely  characterized  portrait  of  Vrw 
Anne-Marie  Ilallstrom  (the  mother  of  Professor  I.  !  lall- 
stroni),  with  violet  cap-strings  against  a  black  dress,  painted 
with  the  consummate  skill  which  Troili  lavishetl  on  his 
draperies,  and,  finally,  the  charming  picture  of  Kru  Mont- 
gomery-Cederhieliii,  executed  in  1861. 


VII 


THE  DUSSELDORF  INFLUENCE.    THE 
HISTORICAL  PAINTERS 

THE  decade  following  1850  received  its  impress  from 
the  painters  who  sought  their  education  in  Diisseldorf. 
In  this  quiet  little  town  on  the  Rhine  there  had  been 
formed  a  school  of  painters  who  tried  to  employ  motifs  from 
contemporaneous  life,  and,  like  the  seventeenth  century 
Dutch  painters  in  genre,  to  depict  peasant  festivals,  life  in 
country  parsonages,  weddings,  and  funerals.  But  in  these 
experiments  there  was  always  something  of  a  stage  effect, 
of  an  altogether  too  obvious  humor,  while  artistic  consid- 
eration was  forced  into  the  background  by  features  designed 
to  catch  the  public  eye  with  cheap  effects.  By  its  choice 
of  new  subjects,  however,  and  by  pointing  to  the  sur- 
rounding reality,  the  school  became  of  great  consequence, 
and  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  forget  the  reawakening  of 
public  interest  in  art  which,  despite  all,  was  due  to  the 
"Diisseldorfians."  The  Norwegian-born  Swedish  lieutenant 
Karl  D'Uncker  with  his  Pawnshop,  his  Gambling-hall  in 
Wiesbaden,  and  his  Third  Class  Waiting  Room  has  given 
us  characteristic  types  and  personages  of  the  fifties  and 
sixties,  more  valuable,  to  be  sure,  in  an  historical  than  in  a 
profoundly  artistic  way,  but  even  from  the  latter  viewpoint 
deserving  interest.  Bengt  Nordenberg  exemplifies  the 
peasant  genre  of  the  school  by  his  excellent  Tithe  Meeting 
in  Skane,  a  tableau  vivant  characteristic  of  the  whole  move- 
ment. Ferdinand  Fagerlin,  who  was  born  in  Stockholm  in 
1825  and  died  in  Dusseldorf  in  1907,  surpasses  the  other 
members  of  the  school  in  the  artistic  qualities  of  his  ex- 

12S 


A  slirvi<:y  oi-'  s\vi:i)isii  art 


129 


Jealousy,  by  Ferdinand  Fagerlin.     In  the  National  Museum  at  Stock- 
holm 

tremely  detailed  portrayals  of  the  Dutch  fishermen  In  their 
home-life,  which  he  represents  with  feeling  and  a  technically 
meritorious  method.  His  beautiful  and  thoroughly  well 
executed  Jealousy,  in  which  a  young  Dutch  sailor  pays  court 
to  a  charming  blonde,  would  perhaps  have  gained  something 
by  the  absence  of  the  second,  sad-hearted  girl,  who  gives 
the  picture,  according  to  the  taste  of  our  day,  a  touch  of  the 
unpleasantly  anecdotical;  but  with  respect  to  technique  and 
color  effect  Fagerlin's  production  indicates  an  important 
advance.  His  art,  however,  is  quite  naturally  more  German 
than  Swedish.  August  Jernberg,  who  was  active  during 
the  sixties  and  seventies,  shows  himself  very  sensitive  to 
color  and  for  that  reason  more  nearly  on  a  par  with  the  old 
Dutch  models.  His  street  scenes  from  Diisseldorf  and  more 
particularly  his  highly  flavored  and  excellently  painted  fruit- 
pieces  and  kitchen  Interiors  have  that  richness  and  strength 
of  color  which  are  often  lacking  among  the  Diisseldorfians; 
therefore,  his  pictures  are  valued  more  than  others  from 


130 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Borrower,  by  August  Jernberg.    In  the  Gothenburg  Museum 


this  school.  The  genre  painting  The  Borrower  with  a  motif 
from  west  Germany  Is  a  little  masterpiece,  A  landscape 
painter  of  marked  Individuality,  though  In  some  ways 
typical  of  the  fifties,  at  once  superficial  and  possessed  of 
power  that  had  a  touch  of  genius,  was  a  native  of  Ostergot- 
land,  Marcus  Larson,  who  showed  In  his  painting  some  of 
the  traits  that  Johan  Nybom  exhibited  In  poetry.     He  be- 


A   SUkVia    Ol'    S\Vi:i)ISII    Akl 


i.-;i 


Landscape    with    Waterfall,    by    Marcus    Larson. 
Museum  at  Stockholm 


In    the    National 


gan  as  a  saddle-maker's  apprentice.  Then  after  years  of 
study  in  the  Academy  of  Arts,  travels  at  sea,  and  wanderings 
in  Norway,  he  began  to  paint  pictures  strongly  Influenced  by 
the  Diisseldorf  artists  whom  he  studied.  But  he  was  perhaps 
still  more  deeply  affected  in  Paris  by  the  old  Dutch  land- 
scapes, especially  those  of  Ruisdael,  which  he  saw  in  the 
Louvre.  Larson  infused  his  love  for  the  wildness  and 
melancholy  of  nature  into  paintings  where  we  can  see  the 
waves  surging,  the  lighthouse  twinkling,  and  the  waterfall 
hurling  Its  foam  between  the  tall  trunks  of  the  pine  trees, 
while  broken  clouds  scud  across  the  sky.  A  distinct  flavor 
of  the  theptrlcal  Is  undeniable.  The  best  of  his  pictures, 
however,  bear  evidence  of  great  talent.  His  striving  for 
effect,  together  with  an  unbridled  and  Inharmonious  element 
In  his  nature,  prevented  him,  In  spite  of  great  promise,  from 
being  thoroughly  successful.    Through  his  own  fault,  he  was 


132  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

finally  shipwrecked,  both  in  his  art  and  in  his  life.  He 
died  in  London  in  1864. 

During  the  reign  of  Charles  XV,  there  was  considerable 
interest  in  Swedish  art.  The  king,  who  was  himself  a 
painter,  encouraged  and  supported  artists  with  a  generous 
hand.  In  his  activity  as  a  patron  of  art,  the  king  received 
much  aid  from  his  friend  and  teacher  of  painting,  Johan 
Kristofer  Boklund,  a  native  of  Skane.  Boklund,  who  had 
made  profound  studies  in  Munich  and  Paris,  had,  as  pro- 
fessor at  the  Academy,  the  very  best  influence  upon  his 
pupils,  by  whom  he  was  especially  liked  because  of  his  help- 
fulness. His  real  field  as  a  painter  lay  in  the  historical 
genre — minor  picturesque  episodes  In  historical  dress,  such 
as  soldiers  at  their  drinking  bouts,  marauders,  and  similar 
things.  Thanks  to  a  rare  capacity  for  work  and  a  love  of 
art,  his  activity  has  been  of  very  great  importance,  even 
outside  of  his  own  artistic  production  from  his  position  as 
intendant  of  the  National  Museum  and  director  of  the 
Academy  of  Arts. 

The  brother-in-law  and  nephew  of  Nystrom,  Fredrik 
Vilhelm  Scholander,  of  Stockholm,  soon  became  the  leading 
artist  personality  In  architecture.  The  historical  sense  had 
been  more  and  more  aroused  in  Europe;  romanticism 
turned  people's  thoughts  to  the  Middle  Ages,  and  a  strong 
Interest  in  the  Gothic  style  of  building  was  manifested  in 
almost  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  In  Sweden,  the  "his- 
torical styles"  came  into  use  principally  through  the  pupils 
of  Scholander.  As  a  teacher  at  the  Academy  of  Arts  he 
exercised  a  strong  Influence.  All  buildings  at  this  time,  even 
those  of  a  monumental  character — with  the  exception  of  the 
National  Museum — were  finished  In  fine  plaster  coatings, 
with  decorations  in  plaster  of  Paris,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
simulate  stone.  Such  a  fagade  looks  dead  beside  one  finished 
In  natural  stone — although  a  well  done  plaster  fagade,  which 
does  not  pretend  to  be  anything  else  than  what  it  is,  has 
both  its  raison  d'etre  and  its  beauty.  Scholander's  Syna- 
gogue in  Stockholm,  completed  In  1870,  with  Oriental 
motifs  deserves  the  approbation  with  which  it  was  received. 


A  SURVia    Ol'   SVVl'-DISlI    A\<\  \X^ 

It  was  the  intention  at  first  that  lie  shoultl  erect  the  foremost 
Swedish  memorial  building,  the  National  Museum,  but  in 
1849  the  designs  of  the  German  architect  Friedrich  August 
Stiller  were  accepted  in  preference.  Stiller  was  a  pupil  of 
Schinkel  and  was  born  in  Thuringia.  In  accordance  with  his 
plans  the  stately  structure  was  erected  in  the  Renaissance 
style  and  covered  with  grey  and  reddish  limestone.  The 
decoration  of  the  interior,  however,  was  directed  by  Scho- 
lander.  The  Museum  was  dedicated  at  the  time  of  the 
Exposition  in  Stockholm,  1866.  Scholander  was  also  of 
great  importance  in  Swedish  art  as  a  painter,  musician,  poet, 
and  draughtsman.  His  remarkable  feeling  for  the  orna- 
mental, a  field  In  which  his  imagination  is  inexhaustible,  is 
especially  well  brought  out  in  his  excellent  sketches  illus- 
trating Fjolner's  Saga,  written  by  himself  and  published  In 
1867,  as  well  as  In  other  saga  sketches  with  architectural 
and  decorative  motifs. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century,  Swedish  sculpture  was 
represented  by  Qvarnstrom  and  Molin.  It  was  a  barren 
period  In  art,  and  the  monuments  and  statues  produced  In 
considerable  numbers  during  this  time  did  not  attain  the 
highest  level.  In  general,  they  are  characterized  by  a  cer- 
tain correct  tedlousness  and  a  considerable  portion  of  pose 
and  conventionality.  Tegner  In  Lund,  Berzellus  In  Stock- 
holm, and  Engelbrekt  In  Orebro  by  Carl  Gustaf  Qvarnstrom 
were  more  the  expression  of  the  literary  and  historical 
Interest  of  the  time  than  of  the  artistic,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  somewhat  theatrical  Charles  XII  In  Stockholm, 
unveiled  1868,  by  Johan  Peter  Molin.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  bronze  group  The  Belt-duelllsts,  exhibited  In  the  Paris 
Salon,  1859,  Is  by  virtue  of  Its  dramatic  quality  and  excellent 
characterization  a  work  of  sculpture  well  fitted  to  adorn 
the  beautiful  spot  near  the  National  Museum  In  Stockholm. 
It  Is  a  truly  original  group  with  not  only  a  Scandinavian 
theme  but  a  Scandinavian  conception.  Molln's  Fountain 
which  was  exhibited  In  plaster  at  the  Exposition  In  Stock- 
holm, 1866,  and  was  later  set  up  In  Kungstradgarden,  Is 
of  great  decorative  beauty.      Even   though   the   different 


134 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


im^s: 


As.^..  ;?...^-4 


/-■''  ■"'  'T 


r  ^- ' 


^  /S'^f^ 


IndiJ 


n  Dancer,  drawn  by  Egron  Lundgren  at  a  Festival  in  Lucknow, 
1859.      Owned    by    Froken    Elsa    Nordenfalk,    Lovsta 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ARl  135 

groups  of  mermaids  and  water  deities  that  mark  the  site 
of  Stockholm  between  Lake  Malaren  and  the  sea  are  not  in 
themselves  perfect,  nevertheless  the  whole  work  of  art,  with 
its  bold  elevation  and  mighty  sweep  of  form,  makes  a  fine 
impression,  especially  when  seen  against  a  blue  summer  sky 
with  the  water  spurting  over  the  cochleated  edge.  It  is  a 
fine  impulse  that  leads  men  to  adorn  public  places  with  an 
artistically  formed  fountain,  which  in  the  midst  of  the  din 
and  noise  reminds  us  of  the  peace  and  harmony  of  beauty, 
itself  a  treasure  of  beauty  which  every  citizen  may  proudly 
call  his  own. 

Egron  Lundgren,  though  born  in  Stockholm,  spent  most 
of  his  time  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  England,  and  has  recorded 
his  artistic  impressions  in  a  number  of  brilliant  letters. 
Quite  naturally,  he  found  the  atmosphere  in  Sweden  cold 
and  depressing,  but  he  continued  to  feel  a  warm  interest  in 
the  artistic  development  of  his  native  country.  His  greatest 
success  was  in  water-colors,  and  his  pretty  and  artistic  small 
sketches  and  water-colors  often  reveal  new  points  of  view. 
His  style,  both  in  drawing  and  painting,  is  sometimes  sug- 
gestive of  Gavarni.  There  seems  to  exist  a  family  likeness 
among  all  his  coquettish  Spanish  women,  but  their  easy 
grace  won  them  a  well  deserved  popularity  with  the  public 
and  the  critics.  Egron  Lundgren  was  really  a  rococo 
painter  born  too  late.  He  utilized  color  to  the  utmost,  and 
It  was  through  color  that  he  was  able  to  conjure  up  new, 
fresh  aspects  of  the  worn  out  Italian  motifs.  During  the 
Indian  Rebellion  of  1858,  Lundgren  accompanied  the 
British  army  and  painted  some  of  his  best  things  In  oils  as 
well  as  In  water-colors,  one  of  them  being  The  Spy  in  the 
National  Museum. 

The  foremost  representative  of  landscape  painting  was  a 
native  of  Stockholm,  Edvard  Bergh.  He,  also,  studied  In 
Diisseldorf,  but  developed  a  genuinely  Swedish  conception. 
He  preferred  to  depict  on  large  canvases  landscapes  of 
middle  Sweden,  smiling  scenes,  where  tall  birches  are  re- 
flected In  Inland  lakes,  or  where  the  cattle  graze  in  the 
pasture,  and  the  sunlight  filters  In  through  the  light  green 


136 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A    Gate   in   the   Birch   Woods,   by   Edvard   Bergh 

foliage.     Bergh's  art  was  easy  to  understand  and  was  well 
liked.     Its  national  stamp  gives  it  an  added  value  for  us. 

Johan  Fredrik  Hockert  belongs  to  the  painters  whose  art 
does  not  easily  grow  old.  We  are  often  unjust  toward  the 
products  of  a  few  decades  ago.  Living  in  the  midst  of  a 
reaction  against  the  exaggerations  or  faults  of  which  they 
were  guilty,  we  are  prone  to  undervalue  their  merits.     But 


A  SURVEY  OI-   SWEDISH   ARK  137 


A  Girl  from  Rattvik,  by  Johan  Fredrik  Hockert.     In 
the   Fijrstenberg  collection,   Gothenburg 

when  it  comes  to  Hockert,  we  see  with  pleasure  that  even 
during  this  period,  which  was  so  barren  of  great  art,  there 
were  artists  who  painted  with  life  and  spirit,  and  were  able 
to  create  something  permanent  and  of  real  interest  to  poster- 
ity. Such  was  the  work  of  Hockert.  His  Lapland  Chapel, 
in  the  museum  at  Lille,  The  Interior  of  a  Laplander's  Hut, 
in  the  National  Museum,  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Salon  in 
1857,  and  his  Girl  from  Rattvik,  in  the  Fiirstenberg  collec- 
tion, do  not  appeal  either  to  the  risible  faculties  or  the  tear 
glands,  like  many  contemporaneous  pictures  of  folk  life; 
they  picture  life  quite  simply,  but  in  a  personal  way  and 
with  warmth  and  color.  Hockert  studied  in  Munich,  which 
soon  forced  Dusseldorf  into  the  shade,  and  surpassed  his 


138  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

teachers  in  proficiency,  especially  after  he  had  developed  his 
technique  during  a  sojourn  In  Paris  in  1851.  There  he 
aroused  attention  and  had  the  opportunity  of  selling  to 
French  galleries.  His  art  rises  to  greatness  in  his  last  pro- 
duction, The  Palace  Fire  1697,  one  of  the  best  paintings  in 
the  Swedish  section  of  the  National  Museum.  High  among 
the  flames  we  see  dimly  the  casket  of  Charles  XI,  and  in  the 
foreground  the  white-haired  "Mother  of  the  Charleses" 
tottering  along,  supported  by  her  grandchildren.  There  is 
spirit  and  life  in  the  thrilling  action,  and  the  picture  is 
painted  with  an  unusual  bravura,  but  it  was  chiefly  through 
his  gift  for  coloration  that  he  attained  his  prominent  place 
in  the  history  of  Swedish  art. 

The  tendency  toward  the  Old  Norse,  which  already 
existed  in  sculpture,  and  was  further  strengthened  by  new 
and  zealous  archeological  studies,  now  received  champions 
in  the  field  of  painting  also.  Loki  and  Sigyn  and  Thor's 
Combat  with  the  Giants  by  Marten  Eskil  Winge  do  not  now 
seem  so  imposing  as  they  are  colossal  in  size,  but  they  are, 
nevertheless,  remarkable  illustrations  of  what  the  sixties 
meant  by  national  art,  and  Winge's  energy  and  enthusiasm 
in  the  execution  of  the  Northern  themes  was  admirable. 

The  man  who  found  the  artistic  form  for  this  interest  in 
Old  Norse  was  August  Malmstrom.  His  father  was  a  peas- 
ant carpenter  near  Medevi  in  Ostergotland,  who  with  great 
and  touching  sacrifice  gave  his  son  an  education  as  an  artist. 
Malmstrom  studied  at  the  Academy  of  Arts  in  Stockholm, 
In  Diisseldorf,  and  in  Paris.  Both  in  himself  and  In  his  art 
there  was  much  of  a  substantial  and  genuine  Swedish  quality. 
He  was  the  right  man  to  give  form  to  the  old  sagas.  In 
1859  he  painted  in  Paris  a  picture  which  Is  thoroughly  Scan- 
dinavian both  in  color  and  character,  Ingeborg  Receives  the 
Tidings  of  Hjalmar's  Death;  and  about  the  same  time 
Malmstrom  started  on  a  theme  with  which  he  was  to  strug- 
gle, In  an  artistic  sense,  his  whole  life.  This  was  The  Battle 
of  Bravalla,  which  Is  presented  In  two  different  productions, 
both  of  them  excellent.  The  earlier  and  more  romantic 
belongs  to  the  Stockholm  Municipal  Building;  the  other  in 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ARf  139 


HH' 

Ingeborg    Receives    the    Tidings    of    Hjalmar's    Death,    by    August 
Malmstrom.      In    the    National    Museum    at    Stockholm 

Nordiska  Museet  is  more  realistic  and  more  Northern  in 
its  character.  Through  his  pithy  sketches  for  Fridthjof's 
Saga  and  the  Saga  of  Ragnar  Lodbrok,  Malmstrom  has 
contributed  in  a  still  higher  degree  than  by  his  painting  to 
give  our  people  a  true  and  full  conception  of  our  forefathers 
during  the  Viking  Age.  He  has  also  sketched  episodes  from 
the  Finnish  War  of  1 808-1 809,  with  an  austere  but  appeal- 


140 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


ing  faithfulness  to  nature.  His  series  of  oils  painted  In  grey 
tones  Illustrating  Runeberg's  The  Grave  In  Perrho,  which 
were  presented  by  the  artist  to  the  Technical  School  In  Stock- 
holm, occupy  the  first  rank  among  these  war  pictures.  There 
Is  another  side  to  Malmstrom,  however,  an  element  of 
tenderness  which  Is  sometimes  In  the  best  sense  child-like. 
His  Dance  of  the  Elves,  exhibited  In  1866,  belongs  to  the 
happiest  incarnations  of  folk  poetry,  while  his  chubby 
Country  Children  show  the  humorous  bent  in  his  character. 
During  the  nineties,  Malmstrom  pictured  in  a  number  of 
excellent  water-colors  that  combination  of  meagreness  and 
grace  In  the  Swedish  landscape  which  is  so  dear  to  our 
hearts. 


Poplars,  by  Alfred  Wahlberg.     Owned  by  V.  Biinsow 


The  ideas  of  the  Fontainebleau  School  were  put  Into 
practice  In  Sweden  by  Alfred  Wahlberg,  born  in  Stockholm 
in  1843.  He  studied  first  in  Diisseldorf,  and  among  the 
results  of  his  studies  there  we  find  the  magnificent  composi- 
tion. Landscape  in  Kolmarden,  1865,  in  the  National 
Museum.     From  the  French  painters  In  Paris  he  learned 


A  SURVEY  or  SWEDISH  ARF  141 

how  to  look  at  nature  in  a  simpler  and  more  profound  way, 
and  hereby  a  new  element,  dilHeult  to  deline,  entered  into  the 
Swedish  landseape  art — the  spiritual  quality  known  as  sUim- 
ning.  Moonlight  scenes,  groups  of  trees,  and  views  had 
been  painted  before;  now  the  artists  strove  to  paint  the  soul 
of  the  landscape  and  to  fix  on  the  canvas  a  transient  moment 
so  that  it  would  produce  in  the  spectators  a  concentrated 
sense  of  evening  repose,  of  the  threatening  power  of  a  storm, 
of  the  frosty  clearness  of  an  autumn  day,  or  the  torturing 
melancholy  of  the  rain.  A  slight  theatrical  aspect,  a  me- 
mento of  the  Diisseldorf  period,  still  remains  in  his  large 
Moonlight  Landscape  with  a  river,  in  the  National  Mu- 
seum, although  the  French  School  already  asserts  itself. 
The  sureness  and  elegance  of  Wahlberg's  art  have  contrib- 
uted much  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  public  to  a  truer  and  more 
intimate  landscape  painting.  An  unusually  good  example 
of  Wahlberg's  lyrical  conception  of  nature  Is  a  picture  full 
of  sentiment  known  as  Poplars. 

Gustav  Rydberg,  himself  a  native  of  Malmo,  painted  the 
lowlands  of  Skane  and  the  beautiful  country  around  RIngsjon 
with  a  loving  and  discriminating  touch.  Olof  Arborelius  of 
Orsa  painted  the  luxuriant  verdure  of  Dalecarlla  and  the 
mining  district  Bergslagen  with  a  freshness  of  handling 
which  increased  with  the  years.  Reinhold  Norstedt  pic- 
tured the  landscape  of  his  native  Sodermanland,  Its  estates 
and  castles  with  parks,  avenues,  and  pastures,  often  bathed 
In  the  moonlight  and  suffused  with  a  soft  melancholy.  A  Mill 
near  Spanga,  The  Eriksberg  Castle  and  A  Summer  Landscape 
In  Sodermanland,  In  the  Dramatic  Theatre  in  Stockholm, 
belong  to  this  phase  of  his  artistic  talent.  He  has  also  painted 
Stockholm,  however,  once  In  a  picture  of  gigantic  dimen- 
sions, A  Summer  Night  near  Stockholm  Stream,  the 
property  of  the  Stockholm  Municipal  Building,  where  the 
mighty  outlines  of  the  Royal  Palace  may  be  seen  In  the 
background.  In  his  canvas  The  Norstedt  Printing  Office  on 
a  Winter  Afternoon,  he  has  revealed  that  subtle  beauty 
which  a  twilight  hour  may  lend  even  business  buildings,  Iron 
bridges,  and  street  cars.     Norstedt's  art  Is  like  Its  parent. 


142 


SCANDINAVIAN  ARL 


A  Mill    Near   Spanga,   by  Reinhold   Norstedt.     Owned    by    Carl    G. 
Laurin 


Everything  wild  and  passionate  Is  absent.  He  did  not  like 
anything  unfinished,  and  shunned  what  was  rough  as  much 
as  what  was  sickly  sweet.  His  pictures  were  small  In  size, 
conceived  In  an  artistic  and  well-rounded  style,  and  painted 
with  an  ardent,  manly  feeling,  often  with  spirit,  in  spite  of 
the  slow  and  careful  execution  of  details. 

During  a  residence  of  several  years  In  France,  Norstedt 
became  the  one  who  appropriated  to  the  fullest  and  deepest 
degree  the  Ideals  of  the  Fontalnebleau  school  an(^  trans- 
planted them  to  Sweden.  Not  only  the  view  of  nacure  but 
also  the  purity  of  mind  and  dread  of  humbug,  strife,  and 
turmoil,  that  were  so  characteristic  of  Corot,  Rousseau, 
and  Millet,  shine  forth  from  the  life  and  work  of  Norstedt, 
and  the  same  Is  true  of  the  personal  delicacy  of  feeling  which 
is  found  in  these  French  artists,  and  also  of  their  musical 
timbre.  As  an  etcher  of  landscapes  Norstedt  is  our  fore- 
most representative  thus  far. 

It  Is  noted  above  that  Munich  began  to  take  the  first  place 
as  a  center  of  German  art.  Diisseldorf  was  outdone.  The 
historical  painter  Piloty  in  Munich  was  a  popular  teacher, 


A  SllRVia'  Ol'   SWEDISH  ART  143 

during  the  sixties  aiul  seventies,  of  tliat  historieal  figure- 
painting-  whieh  was  so  niueh  in  vogue  at  the  time,  a  field  in 
which  the  I'renehnian  Delaroche,  in  the  thirties  and  forties, 
and  the  Belgian  Gallait,  in  the  thirties,  had  won  a  luiropean 
reputation.  Whereas  the  Diisseldorf  paintings  resembled, 
in  many  respects,  scenes  from  comedies,  the  products  of  the 
last  named  artists  call  to  mind  well  staged  tragedies.  There 
Is  something  vacuous  and  ostentatious  In  this  art  which  had 
Its  authorization  as  an  opposition  to  the  colorless  art  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century.  It  was  this  hollow  method  of 
treatment  of  the  historical  themes  which  made  "historical" 
paintings  suspicious;  for  the  main  point  is  how  a  subject  is 
handled,  whether  it  be  a  still  life  or  a  battle.  At  all  events, 
we  understand  our  age  better  than  any  other.  Historical 
reconstruction  will  always  be  false,  and  our  time  paints  an 
overcoat  better  than  an  armor,  just  as  the  Middle  Ages 
painted  an  armor  better  than  a  toga.  We  tire  most  quickly 
of  archaizing  art,  I.  e.,  that  painting,  which,  using  a  stale 
method  borrowed  from  the  old  masters,  seeks  with  a  feigned 
naivete  to  obtain  the  same  touching  effect  which  the  latter 
unconsciously  gave  their  paintings. 

Georg  von  Rosen  received  his  education  from  Plloty  in 
Munich  and  even  more  from  H.  Leys  In  Belgium,  who  imi- 
tated the  archaic  in  Holbein's  style,  Rosen  soon  reached  a 
finished  artistic  development.  He  was  born  in  Paris  but 
came  to  Sweden  at  the  early  age  of  five,  and  Paris,  strangely 
enough,  was  to  be  the  art  center  with  which  he  had  least  in 
common.  It  might  almost  be  said  that  Rosen  in  his  art 
realized  just  what  the  Munich  school  tried  in  vain  to  express. 
The  historical  and  universally  human  have  in  him  been  fused 
Into  a  unity.  The  sound,  aristocratic  art  of  Velazquez  had 
an  influence  in  giving  him  his  thorough  technique.  Rosen's 
production  has  not  been  abundant,  but  it  is  of  sterling 
quality.  King  Eric's  anguish  of  soul  is  reproduced  in  mas- 
terly fashion  in  the  large  painting  Eric  XIV,  Karin  Mans- 
daughter,  and  Goran  Persson.  Eric's  scarlet  garments 
shine  with  royal  splendor,  and  we  see  him  wavering  between 
hate  and  love.     On  this  canvas,  signed  1871,  monumental 


144 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Eric   XIV,    Karin    Mansdaughter,    and    Goran    Persson,    by    Georg 
von   Rosen.     In   the   National   Museum   at   Stockholm 


grandeur  and  exquisite  color  are  united  into  a  whole,  and 
the  characters  live  their  own  lives  woven  of  hatred,  terror, 
and  love,  but  play  no  part  for  the  spectator.  The  same 
dramatic  suspense  is  found  in  The  Prodigal  Son,  in  the 
National  Museum.  Upon  the  ground,  outside  of  a  medieval 
country  home,  with  glowing  evening  skies  in  the  background, 
lies  the  ragged,  despairing  son  on  his  knees  before  his 
mother,  who  is  just  coming  out  upon  the  steps.  In  1881,  a 
few  years  before  The  Prodigal  Son,  Karin  Mansdaughter 
Visiting  Eric  in  Prison  was  put  on  exhibition  in  the  Art 
Museum  in  Copenhagen.  The  light  from  the  tiny  prison 
window  falls  upon  Karin's  face.  With  beautiful  eyes  she 
looks  up  to  her  gloomy  husband.  It  is  a  great  moment,  but 
full  of  bitter  pain. 

Rosen's  etchings  and  sketches  with  themes  from  the  six- 
teenth century  show  an  unusual  ability  to  transport  himself  to 
past  ages.  Among  these  are  the  copper  etching  The  Chris- 
tening and  the  masterly  glass  etching  Ture  Jonsson  Returns 


A  SURVI'A'  OI"  SWl'lDISII   ART 


145 


Irom  the  National  Asscmlily  in  Viistcras.  'I'lic  artist  is 
perhaps  most  succcsslul  ol'  all  in  portrait  painting,  a  licKl  of 
art  in  \\'hich  oui^  time,  with  its  sense  ol  the  iiulixidual,  is  miieh 
interested.      \'ery  im[)ressi\e  and  spirited  is  his  l\)rtrait  of 


Portrait   of   Self,   by   Georg   von   Rosen.     In   the    Uffizi    Gallery   at 
Florence 


146  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Himself  in  the  Uffizi  Gallery  in  Florence.  The  portrait  of 
his  father  and  that  of  Pontus  Wikner  are  both  among  the 
best  productions  of  contemporary  portrait  painting.  The 
former  pictures  the  old  count  and  railroad  builder  in  his 
decorative  fur  coat,  his  eyes  beaming  with  friendliness  and 
intelligence;  and  the  latter,  painted  in  1896,  several  years 
after  Wikner's  death,  interprets  the  hunted,  restlessly 
searching  expression  of  a  countenance  furrowed  by  thinking 
and  suffering  of  the  soul.  In  his  official  portraits  also  Rosen 
shows  himself  very  eminent.  That  of  Director  General 
Troilius  with  its  mixture  of  ponderousness  and  kindliness 
is  a  good  example.  The  Portrait  of  Charles  XV,  with  the 
outstretched  hand,  is  excellently  characterized,  as  is  also  his 
Oscar  II,  a  picture  which  has  a  high  value  from  a  coloristic 
viewpoint  as  well.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  latter  has 
been  completely  spoiled  by  subsequent  retouching  by  the 
artist.  The  monumental  picture  of  Governor  Baron  af 
Ugglas  should  be  especially  mentioned,  as  well  as  the  strong, 
slightly  humorous  head  of  A  Farmer  from  Sodermanland, 
in  the  National  Museum. 

Rosen's  best  known  canvas  from  the  closing  period  of 
the  century  was  The  Resurrection  of  Queen  Dagmar,  painted 
in  response  to  an  order  from  Denmark  and  hung  in  Freder- 
iksborg.  Here  the  artist  depicts  the  gentle  queen  of  Valde- 
mar  the  Victorious,  who  has  died  during  his  absence  and 
who  comes  to  life  for  a  moment,  through  a  miracle,  to  bid 
her  husband  farewell.  The  painting  was  completed  in  1899. 
For  decades  the  artist  strove  to  picture  the  inexorableness  of 
Fate  in  an  allegorical  painting  called  Sphinx.  In  the  figure, 
a  lion  with  a  woman's  head,  he  succeeded  in  producing  some- 
thing of  the  very  scent  of  a  beast  of  prey,  while  the  superbly 
painted  face,  with  the  beautiful,  hard  mouth,  the  delicate 
nose,  which  seems  to  be  smelling  blood,  and  the  terror-strik- 
ing look  of  madness  and  pain,  bear  testimony  to  his  great 
art  and  psychological  insight. 

Julius  Kronberg,  born  in  Karlskrona,  in  1850,  also  ex- 
perienced the  influence  from  Munich.  By  a  thorough  study 
of  the  technique  of  the  masters,  he  attained  sureness  in 


A  SURVJiV  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


147 


The  Nymph  of  the  Chase  and  Fauns,  by  Julius  Kronberg. 
In  the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 

means  of  expression  and  discovered  a  brilliant,  luscious 
coloring.  He  made  his  reputation  by  The  Nymph  of  the 
Chase   and   Fauns,   purchased   in    1875    for   the   National 


148  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Museum.  It  shows  his  art  from  its  best  side.  Here  we 
meet  an  unexpected  boldness  and  a  vivid  color  that  had  not 
been  seen  before.  The  nymph  in  her  white  beauty  against 
the  warm,  yellow  silk,  the  play  of  sunbeams  on  the  tropical 
foliage  and,  not  least,  the  merrily  grinning  fauns,  full  of  the 
love  of  life,  called  to  mind  the  joyous  coloring  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  following  year  Spring  was  painted, 
representing  a  beautiful  young  woman  who  flies  through 
the  air  on  a  stork,  surrounded  by  flower-strewing  cupids. 
In  Saul  and  David  the  kingly  form  of  Saul  is  one  of  the 
artist's  best  figures,  while  the  decoration  of  the  royal  hall 
shows  his  exquisite  taste  and  wide  knowledge  in  the  domain 
of  industrial  art.  Kronberg's  greatest  works,  however,  are 
the  ceiling  pieces  above  the  main  stairway  of  the  Royal 
Palace.  Of  the  three  allegorical  paintings,  the  first  pictures 
Svea  surrounded  by  the  symbolical  figures  of  Commerce, 
Agriculture,  and  Industry;  the  second  portrays  the  rose- 
colored  form  of  Aurora;  while  the  third  represents  The 
Ascension  of  the  Soul.  In  a  series  of  paintings  with  subjects 
from  Biblical  history,  Kronberg  completed  the  decorations 
of  the  cupola  in  the  Church  of  Adolphus  Frederick  in  Stock- 
holm. The  ceiling  panels  in  the  auditorium  of  the  Dramatic 
Theatre,  representing  Orpheus  and  the  Muses,  is  distin- 
guished by  a  magnificent  composition,  even  though,  like 
several  of  his  works,  it  suffers  from  a  banal  sweetishness 
both  in  color  and  form.  His  portrait  of  the  blind  Professor 
Hamberg  and  the  strongly  characterized  portrayal  of  the 
energetic  aged  profile  of  Consul  Ekman  show  his  many- 
sidedness.  Like  Franz  von  Lenbach  in  Germany,  Julius 
Kronberg  has  made  a  large  number  of  admirable  copies 
from  Venetian  and  Flemish  painters. 

Within  the  domain  of  historical  painting,  which  was  more 
and  more  neglected,  Nils  Forsberg,  of  Skane,  after  pro- 
found studies  in  France,  won  distinction  with  his  gigantic  A 
Hero's  Death,  a  motif  from  the  Franco-Russian  War,  and 
was  awarded  a  medal  of  the  first  class  at  the  Paris  Salon  in 
1888.  The  largest  picture  that  Forsberg  has  painted  up 
to  this  time  appeared  at  the  International  Exposition  in 


A  survi<:y  ()i<  swr:i)isii  akf 


149 


Paris  ill  1901).  It  represents  (iiistavus  Adolphus  before  the 
Battle  of  Liit/.en,  and  has  been  presented  to  the  Gothenburg 
Museum,  which  is  also  in  possession  of  P\)rsberg's  Family 
of  Acrobats,  a  very  skillfully  executed  figure  painting. 

French  academic  impressions  from  the  seventies,  which 
were  present  in  Forsberg's  art,  are  found  also  in  the  work 
of  Gustaf  Cederstrom,  who  was  born  in  Stockholm  in  1845. 
His  large  canvas  The  Inmcral  Procession  of  Charles  XTI, 
painted  in  1878,  is  uni\-crsally  known.     Hie  original  is  now 


The  Funeral  procession  of  Charles  XII,  by  Gustaf  Cederstrom. 
In   the   National    Museum  at  Stockholm 


in  Russia,  but  a  copy  came  to  the  National  Museum  in  1884. 
In  this  popular  painting  the  interesting  motif  has  been 
treated  with  loftiness  and  grandeur.  The  period  of  Charles 
XII  has  often  been  pictured  by  this  artist,  whose  cold  scale 
of  colors  seems  suited  to  the  winter  atmosphere  that  lies  over 
those  stern  and  hard  times.  But  there  was  enthusiasm  also 
beneath  the  austere  surface,  and  in  his  Magnus  Stenbock  on 
the  27th  of  September,  1709,  placed  in  the  Provincial 
Assembly  Hall  in  Malmo,  he  has  demonstrated  his  ability 
to   express   this   as  well.      In    Cederstrom's   large   painting 


150  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Narva,  in  the  National  Museum,  a  product  which  is  rather 
unsatisfactory  from  a  coloristic  standpoint,  the  artist  has 
shown  the  first  and  most  brilHant  act  of  the  drama  of 
Charles  XII.  Cederstrom's  woman  Salvationist  trying  to 
convert  some  bar-room  habitues  is  one  of  his  best  paintings. 
Carl  Gustaf  Hellquist,  who  died  in  Munich  in  1890,  was 
a  painter  of  historical  themes  who  received  much  apprecia- 
tion in  Germany,  where  he  spent  most  of  his  time.  He  lays 
great  stress  on  archeological  details,  and  is  sober  and  dry 
in  his  coloring,  but  has  painted  some  good  pictures  whenever 
he  has  avoided  that  theatrical  strain  which  has  tainted  so 
many  historical  paintings.  He  is  most  successful  perhaps  in 
The  Religious  Discussion  between  Olavus  Petri  and  Peder 
Galle.     The  Sacking  of  Visby  is  not  wholly  free  from  pose. 


VIII 

THE  OPPONENTS.    NEW  TENDENCIES  IN 
SWEDISH  PAINTING 

THE  beginning  of  the  eighties  was  a  turbulent  period 
in  the  world  of  Swedish  art.  Many  of  the  artists  had 
had  their  eyes  opened  to  the  rich  growth  of  sculpture 
and  painting  that  flourished  in  France.  They  had  eagerly 
sought  to  utilize  for  their  own  ends  the  new  suggestions 
from  Paris,  and  had  learned  the  value  of  a  closer  and  more 
thorough  study  of  nature  and  a  broader  method  of  painting. 
They  had  become  interested  In  painting  the  life  that  pulsates 
round  about  us  In  fields  and  meadows,  in  drawing-rooms  and 
factories.  Efforts  were  now  made  to  paint  the  motif  on  the 
spot  —  outdoor  painting  —  and  to  obtain  stronger  light 
effects.  All  this  was  pursued  with  youthful  enthusiasm,  and 
when  the  results  were  exhibited  at  the  Opponents'  Exhibi- 
tion In  Stockholm  in  1885,  they  were  met  by  that  mocking 
laughter  with  which  the  new  has  always  been  greeted. 
Among  the  "Opponents,"  who  opposed  the  academic  con- 
ception and  method  of  teaching,  there  were,  at  the  close  of 
the  century,  many  artists  who  were  known  and  admired  all 
over  Europe,  and  who,  more  than  any  of  their  predecessors, 
had  made  Swedish  art  known  and  respected  In  the  circles  and 
among  the  people  who.  In  the  course  of  time,  have  most 
influenced  European  judgment  of  art.  Many  of  the  Oppo- 
nents united  in  1886  and  formed  Konstnarsforbundet. 

Among  all  the  Opponents,  Ernst  Josephson  was  perhaps 
the  most  oppositional  nature.  Violence  and  weakness,  tend- 
encies at  once  revolutionary  and  romantic,  were  found  In 
him,  and  his  contribution  to  Swedish  art  has  been  invaluable. 
Ernst  Josephson   was   born    In   a    highly   cultured   Jewish 

151 


152  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

family  in  Stockholm.  In  the  beginning  of  the  seventies,  he 
went  through  the  Academy  of  Arts,  and  he  afterwards 
travelled  in  Holland,  Italy,  and  France.  At  first  he  was 
strongly  influenced  by  the  Dutch  and  Venetian  schools  of 
art;  then  he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  received  deep  impres- 
sions from  Manet.  When  Josephson  exhibited  his  portraits 
at  the  Paris  Salon  in  1881,  he  was  lauded  in  the  foremost 
art  magazine  of  France,  Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,  as  one  of 
the  greatest  of  contemporary  portrait  painters.  It  was 
more  difficult  to  obtain  recognition  in  his  native  land. 

Josephson  was  the  man  who  took  the  initiative  in  the 
above-mentioned  opposition  to  the  Academy,  the  result  of 
which  was  Konstnarsforbundet.  The  duration  of  his  crea- 
tive period  was  to  be  short;  for  as  early  as  1888,  during  his 
art  studies  in  Brittany,  he  was  attacked  by  a  mental  disease. 
An  unusually  rich  and  intense  inner  life  lies  back  of  his  art, 
and  is  revealed  in  his  coloring  as  well  as  in  his  ideas.  In 
fact,  this  characteristic  quality  can  be  detected  even  in  the 
sketches  which  were  made  during  his  illness.  Though  hazy 
and  distorted,  they  often  disclose  the  guiding  light  of  genius, 
while  they  are  conventionalized  in  execution. 

Josephson  had  learned  much  from  Rembrandt  and  the 
Venetians  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  made  a  superb  copy 
after  Rembrandt's  Director  of  the  Clothes  Dealers'  Guild, 
and  his  first  paintings  bear  witness  to  influences  from  the  old 
masters.  In  1878  he  painted  Saul  and  David,  with  its  warm 
golden  tone  and  its  rich,  deep  pigments,  calling  to  mind  the 
Venetian  masters  of  the  Renaissance.  The  painting  has 
been  presented  to  the  National  Museum  by  a  society  called 
Friends  of  the  National  Museum. 

Josephson  is  excellently  represented  in  the  finely  selected 
and  arranged  collection  of  Klas  Fahaeus  in  Hogberga, 
Lidingo,  where  a  whole  wall  is  devoted  to  him.  The  eye  is 
at  once  arrested  by  the  portrait  of  Fru  Gustaf  af  Geijer- 
stam,  with  its  look  of  foreboding,  while  perhaps  the  most 
noteworthy  of  all  is  the  large  painting  Cheating  Gamesters, 
a  mere  sketch  but  masterly  from  a  colorlstic  and  dramatic 
viewpoint.     Among  Josephson's  portraits  are  those  of  the 


A  SURVFY  OF  SWKDTSII   AR'V  153 


The  Journalist  G.   Renholm,   by  Ernst  Josephson.     In  the  National 
Museum   at  Stockholm 


two  artists,  his  friend,  Allan  Osterlind,  in  the  Gothenburg 
Museum,  and  a  splendidly  characterized  picture  of  Carl 
Skanberg,  the  elegant,  hunchbacked  artist,  pictured  with  a 
Gobelin  tapestry  as  background.  It  is  especially  in  the  por- 
trait of  the  Swedish-French  journalist  Renholm,  sketched 
in  his  black  suit  against  the  cream-colored  wall,  that  Joseph- 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Spanish  Blacksmiths,  by  Ernst  Josephson.     In  the  National  Gallery 
at  Christiania 

son  has  introduced  a  freedom  and  breadth  and  at  the  same 
time  a  fresh  modernity,  which  makes  this  production  a  mile- 
stone in  the  development  of  Swedish  art.  The  same  quali- 
ties and  maybe  more  of  the  "joy  of  painting"  are  found  in  his 
Spanish  Blacksmiths,  done  in  1882  in  Seville,  and  now 
adorning  the  National  Gallery  in  Christiania.  Among  his 
portraits  of  women  are  Fru  Bagge,  nee  Heyman,  in  a  black 
dress  and  with  a  bouquet  of  flowers,  and  the  excellent  portrait 


A  sDKVia  oi"  s\vi:i)isii  aki 


155 


Fru  Jeanette  Rubenson,  by  Ernst  Josephson.     Loaned  to  the 
National    Museum 


of  Fru  Rubenson,  at  once  conventionalized  and  realistic  and 
with  a  delightful  mixture  of  Orientalism  and  Swedish  sum- 
mer pleasure. 

Before  illness  broke  his  strength,  he  executed  his  large 
and  violently  contested  painting  The  Water  Sprite  which 
is  in  the  collection  of  Prince  Eugen.  It  was  painted  in 
Eggedal,  a  few  miles  north  of  Drammen  in  Norway,  and 
represents  a  young  boy  who  in  the  midst  of  sunshine  plays 
his  despair  upon  a  golden  violin.  With  its  blue  and  green 
tones,  with  the  light  body  of  the  youth  against  the  cliffs  and 
foaming  cataract,  this  work  represents  Josephson's  strange 


156 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Water  Sprite,  by  Ernst  Josephson.     In  Prince  Eugen's  home, 
Valdemarsudde,  Stockholm 


union  of  realism  and  romanticism.  It  is  a  cry  of  anguish 
and  unsatisfied  longing,  of  despair  at  the  impossibility  of 
giving  form  to  the  emotions  of  the  soul.     This  remarkable 


A  survj:v  oi"  s\vJ':iMsii  art  157 

work  ol  art,  at  one  tunc  ollcrcd  l)y  its  i^oyal  owner  to  the 
National  Museum,  wliicli  relused  it,  was  not  acle(|iiately 
appreciated  e\en  by  Josephson's  comrades  among  the  Oppo- 
nents. It  is  now  set  in  a  wall  in  what  is  possibly  the  most 
beaLititul  home  in  Sweden,  that  of  Prince  Kugen  at  Valde- 
marsiidde  in  Stockholm.  The  artist  has  treated  the  same 
theme  more  harmoniously  in  another  smaller  painting  called 
The  Nix,  presented  to  the  National  Museum  by  the 
"Friends"  of  that  institution.  One  seems  to  hear  the  mighty, 
full-toned  stroke  of  the  bow,  mingling  with  the  roar  of  the 
cataract,  when  the  tawny,  leaf-crowned  boy  plays  in  the 
summer  night. 

Carl  Hill,  who  died  insane  In  191 1,  received  strong  im- 
pulses in  France  from  the  impressionistic  painting  of  light, 
and  has  left  some  landscapes  which  show  that  Swedish  art 
suffered  a  great  loss  when  he  broke  down  so  early.  August 
Hagborg  and  Hugo  Salmson,  who  were  also  counted  among 
the  Opponents,  may  be  said  to  belong,  through  choice  of 
themes  and  technique  and  prolonged  residence  In  France, 
to  French  art.  Hagborg  Is  fond  of  painting  the  people  on 
the  shore  of  northern  France,  the  silver-grey  sky,  and  the 
greenish-blue  waves.  Among  his  scenes  from  the  seashore 
may  be  mentioned  Waiting,  a  fisherman's  wife  from  Skane, 
who  with  her  child  on  her  arm  Is  watching  for  her  husband. 
Hagborg  won  fervent  admiration  through  his  painting  Low 
Tide  near  La  Manche.  Hugo  Salmson  was  Influenced  by 
Bastien-Lepage  and  other  French  painters  of  country  folk 
in  the  choice  of  his  motifs  from  the  villages  in  Picardy.  His 
White  Beet  Harvesters,  In  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  painted 
In  1878,  shows  this  tendency.  He  has  also  found  motifs  for 
many  pictures  in  Skane,  as  In  The  Gleaners,  In  some  well 
painted  Interiors  of  peasants'  cottages,  and  In  The  Children 
at  the  Gate  In  Dalby,  which  was  purchased  by  the  French 
government,  and  Is  probably  the  representation  of  Swedish 
peasant  life  most  popular  on  the  Continent. 

Per  Ekstrom  is  an  important  landscape  painter.  Long  a 
resident  In  France,  he  received  impressions  from  the  French 
landscape  painters,  impressions  which,  however,  he  has  used 


158  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

in  his  own  art  with  much  independence.     Ekstrom  is  a  color- 
ist,  whether  he  paints  the  barren  heaths  of  his  native  island, 
Oland,  or  lets  a  red  evening  sun  play  with  luminous  beams 
over  glittering  waters  and  greyish-violet  cliffs.     Carl  Skan- 
berg,  through  pictures  distinguished  not  least  from  the  view- 
point of  color,  introduced,  about  1880,  a  new  freshness  into 
Swedish  landscape  painting.     Especially  the  harbor  motifs 
from  Holland  and  Venice  are  comparable  with  the  best  of 
contemporary  landscape  painting,  and  perhaps  the  foremost 
of  all  is  the  pearl  grey,  masterly  canvas  Santa  Maria  della 
Salute  in  the  Rain,  which  was  presented  by  Ernst  Joseph- 
son  to  the  National  Museum.     How  airy,  clear,  and  exqui- 
site in  color  does  not  this  painting  appear  compared  with 
G.  V.  Palm's  hard,  monotonously  tinted  pictures  of  Venice ! 
The  sterling  art  of  Carl  Larsson  is  typical  of  much  that 
was  best  among  the  so-called  Opponents  of  the  eighties.    He 
was  born  in  Stockholm  in  1853  ^^^^  began  his  career  as  an 
illustrator.     We  have  had  few  good  illustrators  in  Sweden, 
but  in  his  drawings  to  the  poems  of  Anna  Maria  Lenngren, 
and  not  less  in  his  genuinely  Stockholmian  sketches  to  Sehl- 
stedt's  Songs,  he  developed  a  combination  of  wit  and  essen- 
tial Swedishness  heretofore  unequalled  among  us.     Larsson 
went  to  France,  and  there  became  engaged  to  Karin  Bergoo. 
His  artistic  talent  burst  into  full  bloom  in  the  water-color  of 
a  French  Peasant  Girl  grinning  in  the  sunlight  among  red 
and  yellow  flowers,  painted  in  1883  and  now  in  the  National 
Museum;  in  delicate  and  verdant  garden  pictures;  and  in  the 
water-color  masterpiece  Grez  sur  Loing,  representing  Fru 
Anna  Liljefors  at  the  shore  of  Loing,  now  in  possession  of 
Fru  M.  Levisson  in  Gothenburg.     These  motifs  are  taken 
from  Grez,  a  small  town  near  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau, 
about  seventy  kilometers  southeast  of  Paris.     There  lived 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighties  a  large  number  of  those 
Swedish  artists  who  have  given  the  name  "Opponents"  an 
honored  place  in  the  history  of  art,  among  them  Carl  Lars- 
son, Karl  Nordstrom,  and  others.     A  characteristic  of  Lars- 
son was  his  restless  productivity.     Everything  he  has  done 
is  instinct  with  energy  and  joy  of  life,  and  it  is  only  when 


A  suRvr:v  oi'  swi:i)isn  ari" 


159 


Mother  and   Daughter.     Water-color  by  Carl  Larsson.     Owned  by 
Ernest  Thiel,  Stockholm 


genius  is  combined  with  such  indomitable  love  of  work  that 
it  can  lead,  as  with  him,  to  great  results.  An  example  of 
this  is  his  revival  of  monumental  fresco  painting.  Through 
the  generosity  of  a  native  of  Gothenburg,  P.  Fiirstenberg, 
he  was  able  to  make,  in  1891,  his  first  attempt  at  mural 
painting  in  a  girls'  school  in  Gothenburg.  Hereby  Swedish 
art  not  only  gained  some  excellent  new  paintings  to  add  to 
its  treasures  of  beauty,  but  an  important  beginning  was  made 
in  reintroducing  art  into  life  and,  instead  of  storing  it  away 
in  museums,  letting  it  shine — as  during  the  Renaissance — in 
everyday  life,  giving  ideality  to  a  place  of  daily  toil. 

Herr  Fiirstenberg's  art  collection,  established  with  pres- 
cient taste  and  containing  much  of  the  very  best  of  vital 
Swedish  art  from  the  close  of  the  century,  has  now  been 
presented  to  the  Gothenburg  Museum.  Here  are  found 
the  three  large  decorative  mural  paintings  by  Larsson,  de- 
picting the  three  epochs  in  art.  Renaissance,  Rococco,  and 


160' 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Woman   Sitting.     Etching  by  Carl    Larsson 

Modern  Art.  These  three  are  resplendent  with  color,  and 
the  last  mentioned,  in  its  fresh,  happy  scale  of  colors,  has  a 
typical  air  of  the  eighties.  The  foreground  is  occupied  by 
an  artist  modelling  in  clay  the  statue  of  a  woman;  behind 
him  is  seen  Larsson  himself  as  an  outdoor  painter,  with  a 
Japanese  looking  on  to  call  to  mind  the  admiration  of  the 
new  movement  for  Japanese  art.  In  the  background  we  see 
Paris,  the  city  where  a  more  thorough  technique  was  learned, 
and  a  new,  less  conventional  view  of  nature  was  inculcated. 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART  161 

Paris,  the  city  of  violet  lights  in  an  atmosphere  filled  with 
chalk-dust.  The  half  finished  I^ffcl  Tower  rises  beyond  the 
Seine,  and  a  midday  haze  lies  over  the  landscape.  A  warm, 
red  cactus  Hower  in  the  foreground  has  an  exhilarating  effect 
like  a  cheerful  trumpet  blast.  Beneath  the  painting  Larsson 
has  sculptured  in  high  relief  a  naked  young  woman,  who 
turns  her  back  and  the  pretty,  merry  profile  toward  the 
spectator;  in  her  whole  supple  figure  we  find  the  joy  and 
youthfulness  which  the  new  art  purposed  to  give. 

In  the  Paris  of  1880  there  were  many  Swedes.  There 
Strindberg  wrote  his  turbulent  stories  so  full  of  spring  feel- 
ing, and  there  the  Opponents  learned  to  paint  from  good 
teachers  in  an  environment  which  was  stimulating  and  ab- 
sorbed in  art.  It  was  the  second  time  that  our  art  became 
indebted  to  France;  but  the  art  of  the  eighteenth  century 
languished,  when  it  was  transplanted  to  our  indifferent  and 
parsimonious  fatherland.  The  fresh  art  of  the  eighties,  on 
the  other  hand,  flourished  and  shot  new,  national  shoots  in 
our  land,  encouraged  by  Swedish  patrons  of  art,  but  also 
vigorously  combated  in  many  influential  circles, 

Larsson  executed  a  monumental  achievement — not  only 
with  respect  to  physical  dimensions — in  his  gigantic  frescoes 
above  the  staircase  of  the  National  Museum.  Carl  Lars- 
son learned  from  the  art  of  Japan  and  the  rococo,  and 
most  assuredly  appropriated  impressions  also  from  the 
decorative  paintings  of  Tiepolo;  but  in  temperament  he  was 
wholly  a  Swede,  and  these  frescoes  are  not  only  an  expres- 
sion of  Swedish  generosity,  but  are  Swedish  In  their  concep- 
tion and  execution  with  an  abundant  measure  of  the  splen- 
dor and  magnificence  that  we  have  loved  from  days  of  old. 
The  expense  of  the  frescoes  was  defrayed  from  a  fund 
created  by  Froken  Sofia  Gieseke  and  the  merchant  J,  H, 
Scharp,  who  have  thereby  given  proof  of  a  patronage  worthy 
of  the  gratitude  of  all  Swedish  citizens  and  the  emulation  of 
the  wealthier  among  them.  The  six  frescoes,  three  on  each 
wall,  represent  an  equal  number  of  episodes  in  the  history  of 
Swedish  art.  All  these  episodes,  with  the  exception  of  one, 
are  localized  in  the  Royal  Palace,  around  which  Swedish  art 


162 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


■II I  -ANTI'kA'S  KVLPt\/R-  SAM  LINGEK? 


Gustavus   III   in   Logarden  Receiving  the   Antique   Statues   He   Had 

Purcliased  in  Italy.     Fresco  by  Carl  Larsson,  in  the  stairway  of  the 

National  Museum 


centered  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
Ehrenstrahl,  the  Father  of  Swedish  Painting,  for  whom 
Charles  XI,  the  surly  royal  economist,  is  posing  as  a  model, 
is  the  theme  of  the  first.  The  central  part  on  the  same  wall 
shows  Nikodemus  Tessin  the  Younger,  the  gifted  architect 
of  the  Royal  Palace,  who  is  giving  over  to  Harleman  the 
task  of  completing  the  Palace.  The  aging  Tessin  is  repre- 
sented with  monumental  breadth  against  a  background  of 
scaffolding  and  mural  surfaces.  To  the  right  of  this  picture 
Is  seen  the  Frenchman  Taraval's  Painting  School,  where  the 
young  Swedish  artists  who  helped  to  decorate  the  Palace 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


163 


received  guidance  in  their  art.  As  mentioned  before,  Tara- 
val's  school  furnished  the  initial  impetus  for  the  establishment 
of  the  Academy  of  Arts.  The  undulating  lines  of  the  rococo, 
the  instructive,  guiding  attitude  of  the  teacher,  and  the  set- 
ting up  of  the  model  are  all  rendered  effectively  and  in  a 
manner  typical  of  the  time.  The  left  side  of  the  opposite 
wall  is  occupied  by  a  picture  from  Louise  Ulrica's  library  at 
Drottningholm.  The  Msecenas  Karl  Gustav  Tessin,  the 
grand-seigneur  of  European  fame,  is  showing  the  queen, 
who  was  much  interested  in  art,  his  treasures  of  engravings 
and  sketches  which  he  had  brought  home  from  Paris,  and 
which  now  constitute  a  precious 
part  of  the  collections  of  the  mu- 
seum. On  the  middle  fresco  Gus- 
tavus  III  is  seen  in  Logarden 
receiving  the  antique  statues  he 
had  purchased  In  Italy.  The  words 
"there  was  a  glamour  over  the 
days  of  Gustavus"  stand  out 
vividly  before  our  mind,  when  we 
behold  the  festive  joy  which  radi- 
ates from  the  mural  surface  and 
meets  the  spectator.  To  the  right 
of  this  fresco  Sergei  is  repre- 
sented working  on  his  Cupid  and 
Psyche.  Sergei's  countenance  has 
something  of  a  deeply  brooding 
nature;  one  can  understand  that 
in  this  magnificent  head  were  born 
the  visions  of  beauty  later  giv- 
en form  In  marble.  Original 
composition,  manly  and  confident  execution,  and  the  jubilant 
tone  of  the  mighty  harmony  of  colors  make  these  six  fres- 
coes, completed  In  the  autumn  of  1896,  not  only  the  largest 
but  also  the  best  monumental  painting  that  our  country  has 
produced  up  to  this  time.  In  1908  Larsson  continued  the 
decoration  of  the  grand  staircase  by  adding  his  gigantic 
work  In  oil,  Thu  Entry  of  Gustavus  Vasa  Into  Stockholm, 


Sergei  at  work  on  His 
Cupid  and  Psyche. 
Fresco  by  Carl  Larsson, 
In  the  National  Museum 


164  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Midsummer  Eve,  1523.  It  is  well  placed  over  the  door, 
and  shows  Gustavus,  a  picture  of  Swedish  vigor  and  health, 
riding  on  his  white  horse  bedecked  with  flowers.  The  draw- 
bridge and  the  cheering  multitude  outside  the  city  wall  have 
been  used  by  the  artist  to  create  a  composition  of  unusual 
monumental  effect.  A  work  which  was  highly  valued  by  the 
artist  himself,  but  is  not  held  in  great  esteem  by  many  of  his 
admirers,  either  from  the  viewpoint  of  color  or  contents,  is 
A  Midwinter  Offering,  picturing  an  Uppsala  king  who  sacri- 
fices himself.  In  19 15  it  was  sketched  on  an  immense  card- 
board, and  the  artist  intended  that  it  should  be  executed  in 
fresco  as  a  pendant  to  The  Entry  of  Gustavus  Vasa. 

In  an  atelier  in  the  North  Latin  School  in  Stockholm, 
Larsson  painted,  in  the  summer  of  1901,  a  fresco  represent- 
ing the  pupils  of  the  school  gathered  for  Prayer  in  Ladu- 
gardsgardet.  The  fact  that  he  here  has  pictured  his  own 
time  in  its  own  dress  will  give  this  painting  an  historical 
value  in  addition  to  its  great  artistic  merits.  One  of  the 
best  things  from  a  decorative  point  of  view  that  Larsson  has 
ever  done  is  the  oil  painting  sunk  into  the  white  ceiling  of 
the  lobby  in  the  Dramatic  Theatre.  The  Birth  of  the  Drama 
is  the  name  of  this  imaginative  ceiling-piece,  in  which  a 
female  form  symbolizing  the  poet's  idea  is  seen  amid  the 
three  crowns  gliding  across  the  nocturnal  sky,  while  in  her 
wake  follow  the  human  passions,  nude  and  wonderfully  well 
drawn  bodies  of  men  and  women.  At  one  end  we  see  the 
poet,  at  the  other  the  actor  receives  the  embodied  idea  which 
he  is  to  reveal  later  to  the  spectators. 

Larsson's  pictures  from  his  home,  Sundborn  in  Dalecarlia, 
have  contributed  most  to  making  him  a  popular  painter.  He 
shows  himself  in  them  an  unexcelled  portrayer  of  children, 
while  every  piece  of  furniture  seems  to  thrive  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  humor  and  harmony.  In  these  rumpled  young- 
sters, portrayed  with  the  double  keen-sightedness  of  love 
and  art,  there  is  an  effervescing  joy  and  a  kindly  roguishness, 
qualities  which  indeed  characterize  Carl  Larsson's  whole 
artistic  production.  The  group  My  Family,  painted  in  life 
size,   deserves   special  mention.      It  represents  Carl  Lars- 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


165 


son's  wife  and  chil- 
dren in  the  yard  at 
Sundborn,  and  is 
found  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Thorsten 
Laurin  in  Stockholm. 
The  artist  has  paint- 
ed his  own  person  in 
two  remarkable  por- 
traits of  himself,  one 
of  them,  in  the  Thiel 
collection,  in  half 
length,  the  other 
showing  him  envel- 
oped in  a  yellow 
dressing  gown.  This 
last  portrait  especial- 
ly has  an  impressive 
air.  Carl  Larsson  pos- 
sessed the  prodigality 
of  genius  to  an  un- 
usually high  degree. 
Frescoes,  oils,  water- 
colors,  sketches, 
lithographs,  and  etch- 
ings of  high  value 
have  been  created  by 
this  remarkable  ar- 
tist, who  infuses  into 
all  his  work  the  dis- 
tinguishing touch  of 
his  own  personality, 
even  though  all  have 
not  the   same  value, 

and  sometimes  a  certain  calligraphic  dryness  and  sweetish- 
ness  appears.  Carl  Larsson's  art  possesses  to  a  rare  degree 
the  great  and  precious  qualities  of  originality  and  style.  His 
production  was  cut  short  by  his  death  in  19 19. 


Portrait  of  Self,  by  Carl  Larsson.     In  the 
Gothenburg  Museum 


166 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  artistic  career  of  Hugo  Birger,  who  was  born  in 
Stockholm  in  1854  and  died  in  1887,  was  brief.  In  his 
color  he  is  often  hard  and  garish,  and  he  liked  to  choose 
themes  that  allowed  the  use  of  motley  tints,  such  as  the 
toilet  of  elegant  ladies  of  the  beau  monde  in  Spain,  enjoying 
life  with  a  lightness  of  heart  which  characterized  the  artist 
himself  in  the  highest  degree.  It  was  left  to  this  life-loving 
artist,  at  a  time  when  disease  had  already  begun  to  under- 
mine his  strength,  to  fix  on  a  large  canvas  a  memorial  of 


Breakfast  in  Ledoyen's  Restaurant,  Paris,  at  the  Opening  of  the  Salon, 
by   Hugo  Birger.     In   the   Gothenburg   Museum 

the  happy  companionship  in  Paris  during  the  time  of  the 
Opponents.  His  Breakfast  in  Ledoyen's  Restaurant  at  the 
Opening  of  the  Salon,  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Salon  in  1886, 
and  now  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  has,  in  addition  to  its 
great  historical  value,  a  breath  of  sunshine  and  joy,  of  good 
fellowship  and  zest  of  living.  Among  the  artists  who  took 
part  in  these  breakfasts  on  the  large  glass-enclosed  veranda, 
which  have  thus  been  preserved  for  posterity,  were  Salmson, 
Hagborg,  Josephson,  Pauli,  Larsson,  Thegerstrom,  Wahl- 
berg,  Hasselberg,  Edelfelt,  Vallgren,  and  Birger  himself, 
who  died  the  year  after  the  exhibition  of  the  painting. 


A   SUKVi:V   OI'    SWI'DISII    AkI-  167 


Parnassus.     Fresco  by  Georg  Pauli,  in  the  stairway  of  the  Gothen- 
burg Museum 

One  of  the  most  ardent  organizers  of  the  opposition  move- 
ment was  Georg  Pauh,  born  in  Jonkoping  in  1855.  Among 
his  productions  in  the  eighties  At  the  Sick-bed,  a  work  of 
sensitive  coloring,  now  in  the  possession  of  Fru  Clara  Pauli, 
of  Stockholm,  occupies  perhaps  the  foremost  position.  But 
his  Roman  Wet-nurses,  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  a  can- 
vas glowing  with  color  and  painted  with  humorous  char- 
acterization, is  an  excellent  work  of  art.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  Carl  Larsson,  Georg  Pauli  is  the  only  one  who,  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  devoted  himself 
to  the  difficult  and  exacting  art  of  fresco  painting.  The 
stairway  of  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  a  building  of  solid  and 
tasteful  construction  both  within  and  without,  has  been 
adorned  by  Pauli  with  dignified  frescoes  in  discreet  colors, 
representing  in  general  outline  the  history  of  the  progress  of 
Gothenburg.  They  were  completed  in  1896.  The  lateral 
parts  were  ready  as  early  as  1895,  and  Pauli  thus  really 
became  the  first  artist  of  recent  date  to  use  fresco  painting  in 
our  land. 


168  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

In  one  of  these  Gothenburg  frescoes  called  Trade  and 
Commerce  we  see  an  East  India  ship  transporting  Chinese 
porcelain  for  the  East  India  Company,  which  at  one  time 
had  its  storehouse  in  the  present  museum  building.  Char- 
acteristic of  Pauli  is  the  other  larger  fresco,  The  Parnassus, 
where  literary  characters  and  artists  from  Gothenburg  in 
the  fifties  symbolize  the  scientific  and  artistic  interests  of 
the  city.  The  decorative  painting  Courtship,  in  possession 
of  the  architect  Ragnar  Ostberg,  was  executed  in  1899  and 
pictures  a  "garden  of  love"  with  sentimental  couples  among 
the  laburnum  shrubs,  wearing  costumes  from  the  time  when 
enthusiasm  for  Jenny  Lind  and  Emilie  Hogquist  was  at  its 
height — a  theme  well  suited  to  Pauli's  art  with  its  distinc- 
tion, marred  by  occasional  weakness  in  drawing.  Pauli's 
deeply  poetical  and  decorative  Midsummer  Wake,  in  the 
possession  of  Erik  Frisell  in  Stockholm,  is  an  exceptionally 
happy  representation  of  the  magic  effect  of  the  light  North- 
ern summer  night.  His  large  fresco  in  the  South  Latin 
School  of  Stockholm  was  painted  in  1904,  and  depicts  the 
Trimming  of  the  Maypole  on  an  old  Swedish  estate.  Among 
his  best  productions  are  the  frescoes  Mining  and  Agricul- 
ture in  Riksbanken  and,  perhaps  even  more,  the  actor  groups 
in  Kungstradgarden,  steeped  in  the  aroma  of  their  time, 
which  were  painted  in  1908,  and  are  now  in  the  buffet  of  the 
Dramatic  Theatre.  A  drawing-room  in  Dr.  Pauli's  house 
near  Djursholm  is  adorned  with  a  series  of  decorative  fres- 
coes representing  the  seasons  and  the  pastimes  belonging  to 
each.  During  the  year  19 10  Pauli  executed  his  charming, 
sun-filled  painting  May  in  the  music  room  of  the  Ostermalm 
School  in  Stockholm.  In  his  delightful  illustrations  to  Gosta 
Berling's  Saga,  Pauli  has  interpreted  the  temper  of  Swedish 
country  life  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
created  interiors  with  an  impressive,  characteristic  atmos- 
phere, peopled  by  characters  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  the 
imaginative  masterpiece  itself. 

In  his  untiring  search  for  the  true  principles  of  mural 
decoration,  Pauli  tried  several  of  the  new  tendencies,  and 
finally  adhered.  In  19 15,  to  cubism.     As  early  as  19 13  he 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART 


69 


li;ul  lliiishcd  paintinji;,  in  the  staircase  of  the  New  i'vleinentary 
School  in  Jonkoping,  a  series  of  allegories  on  education,  in 
the  cubist  style.  He  is  an  excellent  writer  on  art,  espe- 
cially distinguished  as  a  stylist. 


Friends;    Ellen   Key   Reading   Aloud    in    Pauli's    Salon,    by   Hanna 
Pauli.     In  the  National   Museum  at  Stockholm 


Hanna  Pauli,  nee  Hirsch,  of  Stockholm,  belongs  to  our 
figure  painters,  of  whom,  unfortunately,  we  have  altogether 
too  few.  Her  portrait  of  Fru  Jenny  Soldan  sitting  on  the 
floor  is  done  with  a  strong  and  realistic  stroke,  and  has  the 
virile  note  which  is  also  conspicuous  in  the  likeness  of  Heiden- 
stam,  painted  in  1906,  which  in  its  romantic  and  fantastic 
conception  interprets  so  well  both  the  inner  and  outer  man 
of  the  original.  The  blue-gowned,  light-haired  little  princess 
of  folksong  at  the  city  wall  of  Visby,  The  Princess,  in  the 
Norwegian  National  Gallery,  reveals  her  Swedish  nature 
underneath  the  archaizing  form.  This  woman  artist  has 
produced  things  of  value  in  landscape  painting,  for  example 
her  excellent  Kungalv  by  Evening  Light,  an  exceptionally 


170  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

magnificent  landscape  motif.  She  reaches  her  highest  level, 
however,  in  her  portraits.  For  many  years  she  was  occupied 
with  a  group  picture.  Friends,  begun  in  1900  and  now  in  the 
National  Museum,  showing  Ellen  Key  in  Pauli's  salon  read- 
ing aloud  to  a  sympathetic  audience. 

J.  A.  G.  Acke  is  an  original,  versatile  Jack-of-all-trades. 
Sketches,  decorative  screens,  and  friezes,  paintings  with 
occasionally  far-fetched  but  always  imaginative  Ideas — for 
example  In  the  Forest  Temple,  in  Thiel's  gallery — alternate 
with  portraits  which  show  a  touch  of  real  genius.  Foremost 
among  these,  perhaps,  is  the  splendidly  characterized  like- 
ness of  the  author,  Tor  Hedberg,  in  a  bright  green  dressing- 
gown,  in  Thiel's  gallery,  where  the  soulful  picture  of  Tope- 
lius  is  also  found.  Among  his  many  renderings  of  the  sea, 
the  fresh-colored  painting  Ostrasalt  in  the  Gothenburg 
Museum  perhaps  takes  first  rank. 

Oscar  Bjorck  is  one  of  our  most  eminent  portrait  painters. 
He  was  born  in  Stockholm  in  i860,  studied  at  the  Academy 
of  Arts,  and  spent  some  time  at  Skagen,  in  Paris,  Munich, 
and  Italy.  Bjorck  is  very  successful  in  his  broadly  painted 
portraits  of  elderly  ladies  and  gentlemen,  for  example  that 
of  Fru  Charlotte  Clason  and  the  quite  superb  portrait  of 
the  manufacturer  Akerlund.  In  the  latter  a  subtle  and  re- 
strained emphasis  on  slight  humorous  traits  adds  to  the  char- 
acterization. The  delicate  and  warmly  colored  little  picture 
of  his  wife  at  the  piano  is  also  among  the  best  of  his  earlier 
portraits.  As  a  portrait  painter  he  undoubtedly  entered 
into  the  fullness  of  his  power  in  the  striking,  characteristic, 
and  beautifully  painted  picture  of  his  royal  fellow-artist, 
Prince  Eugen. 

Among  Bjorck's  earliest  and  most  substantial  productions 
are  Distress  Signal,  an  excellently  painted  interior  of  a  sail- 
or's home,  hung  in  the  Copenhagen  Art  Museum;  Roman 
Blacksmiths,  in  the  Museum  in  Washington,  showing  a  sooty 
shop  illuminated  both  by  the  sun  and  by  the  fire  In  the  forge; 
and  the  powerfully  executed  Farm  Scene,  In  our  National 
Museum,  with  Its  brilliant  sun  effect.  The  large  picture 
painted  In  1904  of  Vadstena  Abbey  beneath  a  red  evening 


A  SL1KVI<;V  Ol'  SWI'.DISI  1  ART  171 


Prince  Eugen,  by  Oscar  Bjorck.     In  the  National  Museum  at  Stock- 
holm 

sky  is  decorative  and  romantic.  This  painting  was  pre- 
sented by  Prince  Eugen  to  the  Technical  School  in  Stocl<:holm. 
Among  his  portraits  we  note  the  impressive  picture  of 
Verner  von  Heidenstam,  painted  in  1900  and  now  in  the 
Gothenburg  Museum,  showing  the  poet  leaning  against  a 
white  column  looking  from  his  balcony  out  over  the  waters 
of  Stora  Vartan,  also  his  singularly  fresh  and  charming  por- 
trait of  Fru  Olga  von  Heidenstam,  painted  the  same  year 
and  now  in  the  Copenhagen  Art  Museum,  and  the  captivat- 
ing and  noble  picture  of  Princess  Ingeborg,  in  white  and 
gold,  which  is  one  of  his  most  successful  products,  not  least 
by  virtue  of  its  coloring.  The  paintings  done  by  Bjorck  in 
1895  in  the  dining  hall  of  the  Opera  Restaurant  are  pos- 
sibly a  little  too  large  in  scale  and  suffer  from  the  excess  of 
decoration  and  gilding  in  the  room.  Many  of  them  are 
excellent,  however.  Bjorck  is  uneven  in  his  portraits,  but 
often  reaches  very  high  levels  in  both  characterization  and 
feeling  for  color.  It  is  seldom  that  we  see  an  official  por- 
trait more  captivating  from  all  viewpoints  than  that  of 
Baroness  Anna  Trolle  in  black  against  red  and  gold,  in  which 
line,  color,  and  expression  blend  in  an  exquisite  unity.  The 
picture  of  the  bank  director  Louis  Fraenckel  in  the  Handels- 


172 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


bank  in  Stockholm  portrays  the  financier  looking  out  with  a 
good-humored  yet  sarcastic  expression,  as  he  sits  in  an  office 
with  red  carpets  and  solid  polished  mahogany  surfaces.  The 
portrait  is  painted  in  a  manner  that  is  at  once  pleasing, 
amusing,  clever,  and  kindly. 

During  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century 
landscape  painting  was  practised  by  hundreds  of  artists. 
Among  these,  besides  those  previously  noted,  a  few  good 
artists  may  be  mentioned.  Robert  Thegerstrom,  born  in 
London  in  1857,  shows  himself  also  a  skillful  portrait 
painter,  for  example,  in  Stenhammar  at  the  Piano.  Axel 
Lindman  studied  in  Paris  and  Italy,  where  he  painted  sev- 
eral luminous  pictures  from  Capri.  His  masterpiece  is  the 
large  canvas  The  Entrance  to  Stockholm,  which  hangs  in  the 
Stockholm  Municipal  Building.  Anshelm  Schultzberg  has 
painted  winter  in  Dalecarlia.  His  best  work  is  perhaps  Wal- 
purgis  Night  in  the  Mining  District,  in  the  National 
Museum.      Vilhelm   Behm  has  pictured   Swedish  nature  in 


A    Moonlight    Night,    by    Gottfrid    Kallstenius.      Owned    by    Paul 
Majovski,   Budapest 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ARi  173 

a  fresh  and  genuine  manner,  under  impressionistic  inlluences 
from  France.  Alfred  Bergstrom  has  rendered  with  much 
taste  and  skill  the  buoyant  coolness  of  the  winter  air  as  well 
as  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  summer.  Gottfrid  Kallstenius 
has,  after  studying  in  Stockholm  and  France,  developed  into 
an  eminent  interpreter  of  the  moods  of  the  skerries,  espe- 
cially along  the  magnificently  formed  coast  of  Smaland. 
Pine  woods  against  deep  blue  summer  skies  or  banked  with 
huge,  wet  snow-drifts  and  islands  and  waters  in  the  magic 
light  of  the  moon  are  rendered  with  an  artistic  seriousness 
and  a  lyrical  strain  which  give  Kallstenius's  art  a  genuinely 
Swedish  quality,  as  in  A  Moonlight  Night  and  the  splendid 
Baltic  Coast  hung  in  the  Halsingborg  Museum. 

A  profound  thinker  and  a  seeker  after  knowledge,  a 
philosopher  of  art  almost  as  much  as  a  painter,  was  Richard 
Bergh,  born  in  Stockholm  in  1858,  the  son  of  the  landscape 
painter,  Edvard  Bergh.  The  picture  of  his  first  wife,  in 
the  Gothenburg  Museum,  with  its  spiritual  delicacy  and 
exquisite  coloring  of  bluish-green  tones,  and  its  realistically 
reproduced  interior  of  the  eighties,  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting of  his  earlier  portraits.  Others  from  the  same  period 
and  equally  characteristic  are  the  masterpiece  Nils  Kreuger, 
in  the  Copenhagen  Art  Museum,  and  the  portrait  of  the  ar- 
tist and  art  patroness  Eva  Bonnier,  in  the  National  Museum. 
The  latter  is  painted  with  passionate  force  and  with  psy- 
chological keeness;  the  expression  of  harassed  intellect  and 
restless  seeking  so  typical  of  the  time  vie  in  interest  with  the 
color  scheme  of  clear  yellow  tones  contrasted  with  the  black 
and  gloomy  pigments.  A  modest  and  charming  Swedish 
quality  Is  found  In  Bergh's  Toward  Evening,  a  little  flaxen- 
haired  peasant  girl  twining  flowers  on  a  meadow  slope.  This 
picture  Is  In  the  Gothenburg  Museum.  One  of  the  few 
realistic  genre  pictures  produced  in  our  land  during  the 
period  of  realism  Is  Richard  Bergh's  large  painting  A  Hyp- 
notic Seance,  In  the  National  Museum. 

Bold  and  fantastic  Is  The  Knight  and  the  Maiden,  painted 
by  Bergh  In  1897  ^"^  now  In  Thiel's  gallery.  The  monu- 
mentally treated  landscape  is  illumined  by  the  setting  sun; 


174 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


My  Wife,  by  Richard  Bergh.    In  the  Gothenburg  Museum 

the  solemnity  of  decision  envelops  the  young  girl;  but  to 
the  knight  all  is  bright  with  the  crimson,  flaming  color  of 
love.  In  the  Portrait  of  Himself,  painted  in  1898  for  the 
world-renowned  collection  of  the  UffizI  Gallery  In  Florence, 
the  searching  eye  of  the  artist  has  been  turned  toward  his 
own  ego,  and  has  reproduced  on  canvas  a  countenance  in 
which  we  divine  the  throes  of  the  soul  by  which  lasting  works 
of  art  are  given  birth.  The  picture  of  the  admirable  actress, 
Fru  Fahraeus,  nee  Bjorkegren,  is  perhaps  the  most  power- 
fully  and   soundly   executed   of   all  his   later   portraits   of 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ARr  175 

women.  I*\ill  of  beauty  and  fervent  feeling  is  A  Northern 
Summer  l^\ening,  representing  a  young  couple  who,  from  a 
\  eranda,  contemplate  a  Swedish  midsummer  landscape  with 
luxuriant  xerdure.  It  is  a  moment  of  complete  happiness, 
of  complete  stillness.  The  foremost  examples  of  his  later 
production  are:  The  Old  Folks  on  the  Shore,  in  the  National 
Gallery  at  Copenhagen;  the  interesting  group,  The  Direct- 
ors of  Konstnarsforbundet;  the  monumental  and  humorous 


Chr.  Eriksson.     Eug.  Jansson.     Kreuger.     Nordstrom.     Thegerstrom. 

The  Directors  of  Konstnarsforbundet,  1903,  by  Richard  Bergh.     In 

the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 

interpretation  of  Karl  Warburg's  active  intelligence;  the 
wonderfully  individualized  portrait  of  August  Strlndberg, 
the  man  of  contradictions;  and  Gustav  Froding  painted 
while  sitting  alone  in  his  sick-bed  as  in  the  desert,  his  hair 
entangled  like  a  hermit's,  and  his  eyes  aflame  with  great 
secrets.  Bergh  was  an  excellent  author  on  art  subjects,  color- 
ful and  original  even  in  his  literary  style.  As  director  of 
the  National  Museum  from  19 14  till  his  death  in  19 19,  he 
rendered  invaluable  services  to  Swedish  art. 

While  landscape  painting  has  all  too  frequently  de^en- 


176  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

erated  into  a  factory-like  overproduction  of  morning  and 
evening  atmospheres,  and  it  is  especially  in  this  field  that  an 
unrestrained  dilettantism  has  flooded  the  market,  we  also 
find  an  intimate  understanding  of  nature  growing  constantly 
more  subtle  in  certain  artists,  who  at  the  same  time  recognize 
that  the  decorative  element — for  a  picture  is  of  course  sup- 
posed to  decorate,  that  is  adorn,  its  place — is  indispensable 
in  a  wall  adornment,  and  that  it  should  preferably  be  affixed 
to  the  surface  in  a  suitable  setting. 

Karl  Nordstrom,  born  on  the  island  of  Tjorn  In  1855, 
has  a  touch  of  manly  melancholy  and  even  of  defiant  power 
in  his  art.  During  the  eighties,  when  he  lived  in  Grez,  Nord- 
strom painted  as  delicate  and  graceful  pictures  In  as  charm- 
ing tones  as  did  the  other  Parisian  Swedes.  The  pastel  por- 
trait My  Wife  and  the  oil  painting  Garden  Motif  from 
Grez,  which  call  to  mind  the  earlier  water-colors  of  Lars- 
son,  are  examples  of  his  style  at  the  time  while  he  was  receiv- 
ing Ideas  from  the  Impressionists  and  from  the  Japanese. 
During  a  rather  lengthy  residence  in  Varberg  In  the  middle 
of  the  nineties,  his  scale  of  colors  changed.  It  became 
darker  and  more  gloomy,  while  the  monumental  and  dec- 
orative qualities  were  intensified  in  contrast  with  the 
emphasis  on  detail  and  on  the  accidental  which  character- 
ized the  tendency  of  the  eighties. 

The  White  Steamer,  gliding  forth  among  the  skerries  out- 
lined in  the  pale  radiance  of  the  summer  night  against  dark 
rocky  shores,  aroused  a  wondrous  feeling  of  mystery.  In 
"this  painting  from  1891,  Nordstrom  has  already  commenced 
to  pass  from  the  French  conception  to  the  Swedish.  Easter 
Fire,  In  Zorn's  collection.  Is  one  of  his  best  works  from  the 
middle  of  the  nineties.  From  the  top  of  the  mountain  the 
flames  rise  toward  a  sky  glowing  with  pale  light,  while  the 
frosty  chill  of  early  spring  night  lies  over  the  landscape.  A 
mystic  pagan  feeling  for  nature  appears  In  this  remarkable 
picture — as  indeed  often  In  Nordstrom's  art.  His  sketches 
have  as  great  artistic  value  as  his  paintings.  At  first  he 
used  a  technique  reminiscent  of  copper  etching.  Later  he 
adopted  a  larger  scale  and  a  broader  method  of  sketching 


A  siiK\'i:v  oi'  s\vi:i)isii  j\\<\ 


■ 

i^^^^^jM 

■gaiw!^^^"^ 

■■^^mBm^ 

MkH 

1 

''''^^^iBi^Bir 

T^  \  •     hB 

H^^^  jl^F 

... ....  ..-i 

Winter  Evening  at  Roslagstull,  by  Karl  Nordstrom.     In  the  Gothen- 
burg Museum 

with  charcoal,  by  means  of  which  he  won  from  the  iron 
mountains  of  Lapland  and  the  valleys  of  Bohuslan  a  beauty 
at  once  austere  and  sensitive.  In  these  sketches,  as  well  as 
in  his  paintings,  he  has  occasionally  given  something  of  a 
fantastic  and  much-needed  beauty  even  to  the  most  banal 
rows  of  tenement-houses.  It  is  the  beauty  in  the  very  crust 
of  the  earth — in  round  mountain  knolls  or  in  ploughed  fields 
with  clouds  lowering  above  them  in  threatening  masses — 
that  Nordstrom  portrays.  Storm  Clouds  in  the  National 
Museum  is  typical;  it  conveys  to  the  beholder  an  almost 
oppressive  sense  of  a  nature  which  seems  to  live  its  own  life 
and  to  be  infinitely  misunderstood  by  man  with  his  restlessly 
beating  heart.  Karl  Nordstrom  is  a  leader  in  Konst- 
narsforbundet,  and  his  oppositional  spirit,  which  is  at  home 
only  in  a  contrary  wind  and  feels  stifled  in  a  calm,  is  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  Society  both  in  regard  to  art  and  art 
policies. 

Nils  Kreuger  was  born  in  Kalmar  and  also  studied  in 
France.     All  the  delicate  nuances  that  mist  can  lend  are 


178 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


rendered  by  Kreu- 
ger  in  his  earlier 
productions  with  a 
lyric  realism  of  the 
most  artistic  spirit. 
A  good  example  of 
a  picture  in  which 
an  accidental  mo- 
tif, taken  appar- 
ently at  random, 
is  treated  artistic- 
ally is  Kreuger's 
Fa  rmya  rd.  A 
part  of  a  ram- 
shackle building 
and  a  fence  where- 
upon hangs  an  in- 
verted tub  with  a 
bird  perched  on 
top — that  is  all. 
The  snow  is  red- 
dened by  the  light 
of  the  morning  sun, 
the  windows  are 
aflame;  a  glamour 
of  beauty  has  been 
cast  over  the  sim- 
ple reality. 

Kreuger,  too, 
found  in  Varberg, 
about  1895,  a  new 
style.  He  loved 
the  wide  horizons,  which  are  almost  entirely  lacking  in  the 
middle  Swedish  landscape.  He  is  as  much  a  draughtsman  as 
a  colorist.  There  is  something  of  simple  greatness  in  his 
cows,  whose  heaviness  and  clumsiness  have  never  been  pic- 
tured  so    faithfully   and,    one   may   add,    so   beautifully  as 


Farmyard,  by  Nils  Kreuger.    In  the  Gothen- 
burg  Museum 


A   SURVI'.V   OI'    SWI'DISIi    AR'I' 


179 


On  a   Stony  Bottom.     Drawing  by  Nils  Kieugei 
Thiel,  Stockholm 


Owned  by  Ernest 


by  Kreuger.  The  sheep  grazing  on  the  high  plateau 
of  Oland,  huddle  together  in  characteristic  flocks.  But 
it  is  horses  that  Kreuger  prefers  to  paint;  now  out- 
lined ghost-like  in  the  bright  summer  night;  now  in  blind- 
ing sunshine,  wading  in  the  dark  blue  water  near  Oland's 
long,  low  shore,  and  again,  as  in  his  Cab-stand  (in  the  pos- 
session of  the  author)  during  a  moment's  rest,  chewing  their 
hay  with  philosophical  melancholy. 

Kreuger  often  paints  on  small  wood  panels,  but  likes  also 
to  use  larger  dimensions.  Some  of  the  best  mural  paintings 
in  Sweden  have  come  from  Kreuger's  hand.  Two  Oland 
scenes  with  cows  and  horses,  presented  in  1904  by  Froken 
Eva  Bonnier,  adorn  the  Grammar  School  near  Valhallava- 
gen  in  Stockholm,  and  the  society  Konsten  i  Skolan  (Art  in 
the  Schools)  has  presented  a  painting  called  Midsummer 
Eve  In  Stockholm,  full  of  summer  sunshine  and  the  joy  of 
work,  to  the  Adolphus  Frederick  Grammar  School  near 
Vanadlsvagen.  Honesty  and  firmness  are  at  the  very  root 
of  Kreuger's  nature  and  art. 

The  decorative  quality  pervades  also  the  soulful  and  per- 
sonal art  of  Prince  Eugen,  born  in  1865  In  Drottnlngholm 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Old  Castle,  Sundbyholm  in  Sodermanland,  by  Prince  Eugen. 
Owned  by  the  artist 

Castle.  The  Old  Castle,  with  Its  threatening  clouds  and 
warm,  glowing  colors,  has  something  impassioned  In  Its 
tone.  In  his  painting  A  Summer  Night,  in  the  National 
Museum,  he  employs  the  unplastic  lines  of  the  middle  Swe- 
dish landscape  in  such  a  large  and  monumental  way  that  the 
forest  heights  and  small  Islands  enveloped  In  the  luminous 
twilight  of  the  summer  evening  give  the  spectator  a  sense  of 
the  structure  of  the  landscape  and  of  a  universality  without 
abstract  coldness.  Prince  Eugen  has  treated  the  beautiful 
motif  from  Tyreso  In  a  mural  painting  eight  meters  In  length, 
which  he  has  presented  to  the  North  Latin  School  In  Stock- 
holm. On  the  wide  expanse  dark  masses  of  pine  are  outlined 
against  the  glassy  lake,   and  over  the  landscape  shines  a 


A  SUkVI'.V   Ol'    SWI'lDISll   ART 


1X1 


oolclcii  yellow  evening  sky.  The  painting  is  placed  in  a  hall 
the  architecture  of  which  calls  to  mind  the  i*  lorentine  houses. 
Cirandeur  and  serenity  rest  over  the  landscape,  and  the 
painting  gleams  like  a  jewel  between  the  austere  columns. 
In  the  main  auditorium  of  the  same  school  Prince  F.ugen  has 
painted  a  decorati\'e  landscape  in  apsis.  The  same  artist 
has  expressed  a  mystic,  personal  feeling  for  nature  in  the 
two  pictures  Night  Clouds,  in  Thiel's  gallery,  and  The  Quiet 
Water,  in  the  National  Museum.  Prince  Eugen  has  worked 
with  great  energy  and  with  a  clear  purpose.  He  has  often 
painted  his  home  environment  on  Djurgarden  and  the  har- 
bor of  Stockholm  as  it  appears  from  his  house,  with  white 
steamers  and  the  lamps  of  the  city  shining  like  precious 
stones  over  dark  hulls  of  ships.  No  one  else  has  interpreted 
that  most  lyrically  Swedish  of  all  motifs,  the  summer  night, 
so  well  as  Prince  Eugen. 

An  obvious  striving  after  the  monumental  is  revealed  in 
his  more  recent  work;  wherein  he  adapts  some  of  the  latest 
tendencies  in  modern  art,  for  which  he  has  always  cherished 
the  deepest  interest.  The  Sun  Shines  Over  the  City  Is  the 
name  given  by  the  artist  to  the  exceptionally  well-placed 
fresco  In  the  Ostermalm  School  in  Stockholm.  The  figure- 
less  altar-piece  In  the  Kiruna  Church,  In  the  most  northern 
part  of  Sweden,  Is  Intended  to  show.  In  the  midst  of  dark- 
ness and  Ice,  the  blessing  of  light  when  It  gladdens  earth  by 
Its  warmth  and  brightness.      Recently  he  has  depicted  the 


Evening  at  Tyreso.     Mural  painting  by  Prince  Eugen,  in  the  North 
Latin  School,  Stocldiolm 


182 

1^' 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Midsummer  Night  at  Riddarholmen,  by  Eugen  Jansson.     Owned  by 
Thorsten  Laurin,  Stockholm 

home  of  primitive  Swedish  culture  in  Vastergotland,  and  still 
later  in  Ostergotland,  where  he  gives  the  tender  lines  of  the 
hills  and  the  wide  views  of  the  plains  something  of  that  sim- 
ple nobility  which  should  be  the  foundation  of  all  great  and 
genuine  art. 

Prince  Eugen's  conception  of  nature,  at  once  sensitive  and 
arbitrary,  is  met  with  again  in  Eugen  Jansson,  who  died  in 
19 1 5.  In  the  choice  of  subjects  he  generally  limited  his 
field  to  his  native  city,  Stockholm,  and  he  succeeded  in  bring- 
ing out  new  aspects  of  its  beauty.  Most  frequently  he 
painted    Stockholm    as    It    appears    from    "Soder"     (South 


■-      -:-           .^:.,:--    .-^.^ 

3Hi^fcL«w-.;L..--;- i^fc^^^ 

On    the    River    Bank,    b}'    Herman    Norrman.      In    the    Gothenburg 
Museum 


Hill),  and  occasionally  Riddarholmen  reflected  in  the  bay 
on  a  calm  summer  night  with  deep  violet  shadows.  Then 
again,  he  painted  a  Winter  Afternoon,  when  the  setting  sun 
cast  a  copper-colored  sheen  over  the  cloud  masses,  when  the 
windows  of  the  Palace  gleamed,  and  the  boats  cut  channels 
in  the  snow-covered  ice  of  the  bay.  This  painting  is  In  the 
possession  of  Ernest  Thiel,  who  owns  a  large  number  of 
canvases  by  this  great  and  original  landscape  painter. 

In   Eugen   Jansson's    colorful    art   lives    a    spirit   which 
thinks  and  feels  with  its  own  age.  His  workmen's  tenements, 


184  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  windows  reflecting  the  burning  gas  jets,  are  rendered  in 
a  light  and  with  a  technique  that  excite  a  sense  of  a  ferment- 
ing social  discontent;  yet  this  impression  is  conveyed  simply 
by  the  method  of  painting,  for  the  use  of  figures  as  acces- 
sories to  guide  the  spectator  finds  no  place  In  the  work  of 
this  artist,  who  despises  all  catering  to  the  public.  In  Eugen 
Jansson  there  is  much  of  that  searching  spirit  which  char- 
acterizes our  best  painters.  He  is  never  satisfied  with  what 
he  can  do.  This  eminent  artist — one  of  the  most  personal 
Interpreters  of  the  beauty  of  nature  that  our  age  has  pro- 
duced— has  achieved,  perhaps,  his  greatest  success  in  the 
large  picture  of  Riddarholm  Bay  bathed  In  golden  light. 

Eugen  Jansson  worked  with  admirable  energy  within  a 
field  new  to  him  when  he  painted  the  nude  men  In  our  cold 
water  bathhouses  in  Stockholm,  all  in  bright  sunlight  and 
with  strong,  blue  shadows;  yet  these  figure  paintings  from 
his  later  period  can  by  no  means  be  compared  to  his  wonder- 
fully personal  and  creative  landscapes. 

An  artist  who  has  made  valuable  contributions  to  Swedish 
landscape  painting  is  Herman  Norrman,  born  in  Smaland. 
Norrman  painted  landscapes  and  portraits  In  light  tones 
learned  from  the  Impressionists  and  with  unusual  freshness. 
Among  his  portraits  Is  Froken  Backman  in  a  black  dress 
against  red,  painted  In  1887,  now  In  Thorsten  Laurin's  col- 
lection. In  his  later  style  Norrman  is  impassioned,  imbued 
with  a  strong  personal  touch.  A  reddish-brown  tone  per- 
vades his  larger  pictures,  which  are  executed  with  a  broad 
brush  and  thick  layers  of  paint.  He  Is  most  interested  In 
clouds  and  their  shadows  upon  woods  and  fields.  Examples 
of  his  work  are  found  in  Prince  Eugen's  collection,  in  the 
Thiel  gallery,  and  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  and  he  Is  also 
well  represented  In  the  National  Museum.  Norrman  was 
originally  a  cabinet-maker  In  Tranas,  but  despite  that,  this 
gifted  man  developed  Into  an  artist  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word. 


IX 


NEW  TENDENCIES  IN  SWEDISH  PyMNTING 

(CONTINUED) 


THE  works  of  Bruno  Liljefors  are  loved  everywhere 
in  Sweden.  Few  artists  have  painted  their  way  into 
the  hearts  of  all  men  as  he  has,  and  few  have  remained 
so  Swedish  in  their  conception  of  nature.  The  woods  have 
never  had  a  greater  interpreter  than  Liljefors.  He  was 
born  in  Uppsala  in  1 860,  studied  for  a  while  at  the  Academy 
of  Arts  in  Stockholm,  then  went  to  Diisseldorf,  and  finally 
to  Paris,  but  was  undoubtedly  one  of  those  artists  who  are 
essentially  self-taught.  In  the  beginning  of  his  career  he 
was  influenced  by  Japanese  fondness  for  detail  and  by 
French  impressionism ;  later  he  sought  more  monumentality. 
The  criticism  sometimes  made  of  his  art  is  that  his  view  of 
animals  is  too  zoological;  but  he  is  a  hunter  in  the  highest 
sense  of  the  term  at  the  same  time  as  he  is  not  less  an  artist, 
and  therefore,  his  paintings,  however  correct  and  detailed 
they  may  be  as  delineations  of  animals,  still  almost  always 
have  a  beauty  and  a  unity  by  virtue  of  which  they  are  true 
works  of  art.  Among  his  early  pictures,  in  which  the  feeling 
for  the  forms  and  details  of  nature  is  conspicuous,  we  may 
mention  the  animal  study  Cat  and  Bird.  But  his  best  work 
from  this  period  is  The  Fox  Family,  painted  in  1886,  show- 
ing the  foxes  capering  around  their  prey  in  the  grass  among 
yellow  and  white  meadow  flowers. 

Sometimes  Liljefors  paints  the  somber  Winter  Night 
brooding  over  snow-laden  pines,  when  the  wind  sighs  in  the 
trees,  and  ragged  clouds  go  scudding  over  the  heavens,  while 

185 


186 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Fox  Family,  by  Bruno  Liljefors.     In  the   National  Museum  at 
Stockholm 

the  foxes  steal  farther  and  farther  Into  the  forest.  Some- 
times he  pictures  the  Wild  Geese  flapping  their  wings  heav- 
ily, as  they  descend  toward  the  lake  shore  in  the  quiet  spring 
evening  and  are  greeted  by  the  cackhng  of  their  comrades. 
The  latter  theme  has  been  treated  by  the  artist  on  an  enor- 
mous canvas  with  a  red  evening  sky,  hanging  In  the  Copen- 
hagen Art  Museum,  and  again,  with  a  more  sensitive  touch 
perhaps,  In  a  small  picture  owned  by  the  architect  Boberg, 
Spring  Evening  and  Wild  Geese,  In  which  two  of  the  big 
birds  flit  past  In  the  buoyant  spring  air  against  a  pearl-col- 
ored sky. 

In  certain  of  his  works  the  artist  seeks  the  monumental 
effect,  sometimes  also  the  dramatic,  and  both  of  these  qual- 
ities are  combined  in  the  famous  picture  Sea-eagles,  painted 
in  1897  and  now  In  the  National  Museum.  The  enormous 
billow  In  The  Breakers,  in  Prince  Eugen's  gallery,  produces 
the  same  effect  of  bigness.  The  largest  and  best  collection 
of  Liljefors  paintings  in  existence  Is  owned  by  Ernest  Thiel, 
whose  gallery  of  modern,  especially  of  Swedish,  art  from  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant that  have  ever  been  established  in  our  country.  Thiel 
possesses  a  number  of  the  ground  studies,  where  Liljefors 
dwells  upon  what  is  known  as  protective  coloring,  letting 
small,  shapely  snipes  or  mottled  curlews  conceal  themselves 


The  Owl,  by  Bruno  Liljefors.     In  the  Gothenburg  Museum 

among  greyish-brown  hillocks,  while  he  created  veritable 
color  symphonies  in  tones  of  silver  or  gold  out  of  the  boggy 
meadows  that  seem  so  ugly  and  insignificant  to  the  uniniti- 
ated. In  this  collection  also  we  find  Liljefors's  best  pictures  of 
ducks:  canvases  that  "look  as  if  they  were  painted  by  a 
duck,"  as  some  one  expressed  it,  in  which  the  mother  duck 
waddles  along  among  tufts  of  grass,  watching  her  little 
downy  balls  with  motherly  eye;  and  the  mysterious  picture 
known  as  The  Panther-skin,  in  which  the  ducks,  on  a  sum- 
mer night,  swim  about  In  a  circle  near  the  edge  of  the  reeds 
on  a  strangely  ruffled  surface  of  the  water. 

On  a  cliff  in  the  forest  sits  The  Owl,  painted  in  1895,  now 
in  the  Gothenburg  Museum.  Shy  of  man  and  defiant,  he 
feels  most  at  home  when  alone.  Free  and  unrestrained  he 
would  hunt,  and  the  murmuring  of  the  pines  is  the  music  he 
loves.  That  owl  strongly  resembles  its  painter.  Indeed  we 
are  reminded  of  him  when  we  see  Liljetor's  Hunter  in  the 


188 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  Self,  by  Bruno  Liljefors.     In  the  collection  of  Ernest 
Thiel,   Stockholm 

National  Museum.  It  has  an  almost  Geijer-like  note  of 
Swedish  temperament  and  of  feeling  for  nature;  through  it 
we  discover  the  very  root  of  Llljefors's  art,  if  we  understand 
that  look  of  listening  to  nature's  own  voice  which  is  in  the 
face  of  the  hunter,  as  he  stands  with  his  gun  among  the 
pine  trees — the  sarrie  look  that  Liljefors  has  given  himself 
in  the  Portrait  of  Self  done  in  19 13.  Liljefors  is  one  of 
those  who  hear  the  grass  grow  and  who  understand  the 
language  of  the  birds.  We  have  every  reason  to  be  grateful 
to  him  who  has  been  able  to  interpret  so  well  that  which  is 
our  own. 

An  artist  who  was  past  master  in  finding  the  essential  in 
everything,  who  in  an  almost  supernatural  way,  could  con- 
jure up  on  canvas  an  object  so  rich  in  life-sap,  so  full-blooded, 
that  reality  seems  tame  beside  it,  was  Anders  Leonard  Zorn, 
born  in  Mora,  in  i860,  and  whose  untimely  death  took  place 
at  the  Mora  hospital  in  1920.  His  mother  was  a  Dalecar- 
lian  girl,  his  father  a  German  brewer.  Zorn  began  his  life- 
work  very  early.  After  leaving  the  Academy,  in  1880,  he 
soon   won   general   admiration   by   his   water-colors,    some 


A  sukvr:v  oi'  s\vi:i)isii  Akr 


1.S9 


Portrait  of  Self,  by  Anders  Zorn.     In  the  National  Museum  at  Stock- 
holm 

painted  with  splendid  impetuosity,  such  as  The  Gypsy 
Woman  with  her  Child,  and  some  with  minute  accuracy, 
such  as  Our  Daily  Bread,  in  the  National  Museum.  Among 
his  water-colors  with  subjects  from  Dalecarlia  and  from  his 
many  and  long  travels  in  England,  Spain,  Northern  Africa, 
and  Turkey,  the  small  pictures  from  Mora  Fair  are  espe- 


190 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Outdoors,  by  Anders  Zorn.     In  the   Cjothenburg  Museum 

cially  noteworthy,  the  best  of  them  all  behig  perhaps  the 
picture  of  the  young  mother  leading  her  recalcitrant  son  into 
the  water,  called  A  Premiere,  now  in  the  National  Museum. 
With  this  theme  he  later  did  an  excellent  piece  of  work  in 
golden  tones. 

About  1888,  Zorn  gave  up  water-colors  almost  entirely, 
and  among  his  first  paintings  in  oil  is  Outdoors,  in  the  Goth- 
enburg Museum.  Here  he  has  treated  in  the  freshest  and 
most  artistic  way  his  favorite  theme,  the  nude  bodies  of 
women,  outlined  In  all  their  beauty  and  softness  against  the 
grey,  jutting  rocks  of  the  shore.  Even  the  surface  of  the 
water  is  handled  with  an  almost  voluptuous  touch.  Zorn's 
purpose  in  his  work,  which  is  not  least  evident  In  this  picture, 
is,  first  of  all,  to  develop  "values"  In  art,  In  other  words  to 
perfect  a  kind  of  painting  that  emphasizes  lights,  half  tones, 
and  shadows,  and  deals  In  particular  with  different  degrees 
of  light  in  the  various  color  schemes.  In  his  long  productive 
period  Zorn  created  a  glorious  line  of  masterpieces. 
Sometimes  he  fails,  however,  and  then  he  may  give  a  sweet- 
ish superficiality  to  his  work,  whether  it  be  In  oil  or  water- 
color,  whether  representing  a  nude  or  a  portrait.  Not  only 
Homer  but  Zorn  also  may  be  caught  napping. 


A  snRVi<:v  ()!'  swi:i)isn  ari^ 


191 


/oni  chilnifcl  (Ii;it  lie  iu'\  t'l"  painted  aiiylliln^-  "imciitcd." 
I  le  paints  liis  owi)  a^e  and  understands  that  e\  en  now  tlicrc 
is  an  alnnulanee  ol  pieluresqiic  inolils  c\cry\vlierc  for  any 
one  who  has  eyes  to  see.  He  paints  Bread-niaking  in  a 
peasant's  home  in  Dalecarlia,  and  the  pasting  of  labels  in  a 
Brewery,  or  The  Inside  of  a  Parisian  Omnibus,  and  in  the 
same  year  The  Waltz,  in  whieh  the  artist  himself  is  seen 
whirling  about  in  a  French  salon.  Ihese  diversified  themes 
testify  that  he  could  find  interesting  material  for  his  brush 
in  almost  anything.  Gradually,  however,  he  concentrated 
his  efforts  around  the  following  groups  of  themes:  folk  life 
in  Dalecarlia,  nudes,  and  portraits  with  the  most  interna- 
tional circle  of  sitters.  Among  his  pictures  from  Dalecarlia 
may  be  mentioned  in  particular  Midsummer  Dance  in  Mora, 
In  the  National  Museum,  and 
the  vividly  colored,  festal  white 
church  Interior  with  Dalecar- 
lians  attending  Christmas 
Matins. 

No  one  else  In  Swedish  art 
has  painted  woman's  body  as 
Zorn  does,  and  Indeed  the  excel- 
lence of  his  style  In  this  field 
makes  him  unique  among  his 
contemporaries.  C.  R.  Lamm, 
whose  rich  collection  contains 
many  modern  works  of  art, 
owns  perhaps  the  best  example 
of  this  in  Naked,  painted  In 
1894  In  New^  York  from  an 
Irish  model,  and  representing  a 
red-haired,  large  limbed  woman  who  Is  drying  herself.  The 
room  where  she  stands  Is  filled  with  a  silvery  light  which  pro- 
duces a  most  beautiful  effect.  The  whole  picture  is  painted 
with  passion  and  vim.  The  same  vigor  and  exuberance  in 
painting  characterizes  Summer,  In  Prince  Eugen's  collection, 
a  blonde,  healthy  woman  who  is  wading  out  into  the  water. 


Naked,    by    Anders    Zorn. 

In   the  collection   of   C.    R. 

Lamm,  Nasby 


192  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

and  The  Improvised  Bath,  in  the  National  Museum,  show- 
ing two  Dalecarhan  women  in  a  bath-house  in  the  double 
illumination  from  the  window  and  from  the  fire.  The  massive 
back  of  one  woman  gleams  with  the  water;  the  younger, 
with  the  bright  red  ribbons  in  her  light  hair,  stands  innocent 
and  unconscious,  turned  toward  the  spectator. 

Zorn's  young  flaxen-haired  peasant  women  with  their  light 
complexions  and  their  slightly  projecting  cheek-bones  could 
not  be  anything  but  Swedish.  Among  these  peasant  pictures 
should  be  noted  Kings-Karin,  a  laughing  girl  in  red,  with 
mischievous  eyes,  owned  by  Dr.  Hjalmar  Lundbohm, 
Kiruna,  and  the  lovely  Hallams-Kersti.  Among  the  figures 
of  men,  the  shrewd,  humorous  country  watchmaker  Djos- 
Matts  occupies  perhaps  the  first  place. 

Zorn  painted  portraits  all  his  life,  first  in  water-color, 
then  in  oil.  Among  the  latter  the  following  are  perhaps  the 
best,  taken  as  a  whole  :  the  picture  of  the  highly  gifted  French 
actor  Coquelin  Cadet,  in  exquisite  bluish  green  tones,  owned 
by  Thorsten  Laurin;  the  vivid,  animated  portrait  of  the 
hbrarian  H.  Wieselgren,  called  A  Toast  In  Idun;  the  bril- 
liant Portrait  of  Himself  with  a  nude  model;  the  sympa- 
thetic representation  of  Prince  Carl  in  blue  uniform,  owned 
by  the  Horseguards,  in  which  the  action  is  rendered  in 
masterly  fashion;  and  the  splendidly  characteristic  portraits 
of  King  Oscar,  one  in  court  dress  with  the  order  of  the 
Seraphim,  the  other,  in  everyday  costume,  a  color  harmony 
in  brown  and  gold.  The  superb  intimate  portrait  of  Fru 
Emma  Zorn  in  red  with  the  dog  Mouche,  and  the  elegant, 
virtuoso-like  picture  of  Fru  Josef  Sachs  In  glossy  black  silk 
and  furs  and  with  a  green  emerald  on  her  finger  as  the  only 
speck  of  color,  perhaps  deserve  special  mention.  Zorn 
modeled,  carved  in  wood,  and  etched  with  the  same  skill.  In 
the  statue  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  erected  in  Mora  in  1903,  he 
proved  himself  a  sculptor  of  very  high  rank,  and  his  sculp- 
tural merits  appear  to  yet  greater  advantage,  perhaps,  in  the 
small,  strongly  sensual  bronze  group  Faun  and  Nymph.  The 
Morning  Bath,  a  fountain  set  up  in  Stockholm  and  repre- 
senting a  young  naked  girl  who  is  squeezing  a  sponge,  is  full 


A  SURVEY  01<   S\VJ-:DIS11  art  193 


Gustavus  Vasa.     Statue  in  bronze,  by  Anders  Zorn.     Mora  in 
Dalecarlia 

of  freshness  and  warm  life.  Among  his  figures  carved  in 
wood,  Grandmother,  a  particularly  lifelike  old  woman's 
head,  and  the  little  wooden  figure  Gryvel,  in  the  National 


194 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Irish  Woman.     Etching  by  Anders  Zorn 


Museum,  a  stout  but  shapely  Dalecarlian  maiden  crawling 
on  the  floor,  are  especially  good. 

In  his  spirited  etchings  Zorn  catches  a  momentary  expres- 
sion in  its  flight  and  records  the  action  with  few  but  striking 
lines  and   dashes  that  hit  the  copper   surface   like  a   rain 


A  SUKVJ^V  Ol-   SWl'lDISIl   ART  195 

shower.  He  delights  in  fixing  the  passing  moment  upon  the 
plate.  Copper  more  tlian  anything  else  gives  sap  and 
warmth  to  a  sketch.  Zorn  is  one  of  the  greatest  etchers  that 
have  ever  lived.  His  technique  Is  entirely  independent,  and 
many  Swedish  and  foreign  collectors  and  connoisseurs  of 
engravings  consider  him  the  foremost  etcher  after  Rem- 
brandt. 

Among  his  etchings  the  remarkable  portrait  of  Ernest 
Renan  with  his  thinker's  head,  The  Irish  Woman,  at  once 
passionate  and  melancholy,  and  Maja,  the  voluptuous  beauty, 
deserve  special  mention.  Besides  these  are  the  portraits  of 
Madame  Simon,  Senator  Mason,  Portrait  of  the  Artist  and 
Wife,  of  the  American  art  connoisseur  Marquand,  Fru  Olga 
Bratt,  Mme.  Dayot,  and  the  American  Zorn  collectors  Mrs. 
John  Gardner  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Atherton  Curtis.  Even  in 
his  etchings  Zorn  likes  to  depict  nude  women,  and  does  so 
in  superb  manner.  Among  the  most  brilliantly  executed 
examples  are  A  Premiere,  etched  after  the  water-color  of 
1888;  My  Model  and  My  Boat,  showing  the  stately,  self- 
reliant  woman  throwing  the  artist's  ulster  over  her  shoul- 
ders; Edo,  a  naked  girl  on  a  rock,  more  graceful  than  most 
of  Zorn's  models;  A  Dark  Corner,  with  two  nude  negresses; 
A  Woman  Guitar  Player  crouching  in  bed;  and  the  fascinat- 
ing girl  sitting  on  a  rock  with  her  feet  in  the  water,  which 
he  calls  Wet. 

Zorn  occupied  a  position  of  honor  among  the  foremost 
artists  of  the  world.  He  Is  as  well  known  In  North  America 
as  in  Hungary;  he  is  considered  a  celebrity  both  In  England 
and  In  Germany,  but  he  never  forgot  that  he  was  a  Swede, 
and  he  contributed  more  than  any  one  else  to  Inspire  respect 
for  Swedish  art  abroad. 

Olof  Sager-Nelson,  who  died  In  1896,  found  time  during 
his  short  life  of  thirty  years  to  produce  works  of  such  ster- 
ling value  that  he  won  for  himself  a  place  In  Swedish  art. 
A  picture  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  representing  a  violin 
player  and  his  audience,  and  called  The  Stroke,  is  perhaps 
most  typical  of  his  art.  There  Is  always  a  musical  quality  In 
his  work,  but  In  this  painting  one  can  almost  hear  the  timbre 


196 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


of  the  stringed  in- 
strument, hear  the 
vibrations  of  a  deep 
and  mighty  tone  that 
would  almost  burst 
the  breast  with  its 
longing  and  de- 
fiance. This  genuine 
characteristic  of  the 
nineties,  mysticism 
and  defiance  in  com- 
bination, recurs  in 
all  Nelson's  strange 
and  yet  beautiful 
portraits  with  their 
yellowish  green 
tone.  Suffering  from 
a  disease  of  the 
lungs,  he  finally  be- 
came melancholy  in 
his  deeply  personal 
art.  In  A  Disciple, 
The  Foster  Broth- 
ers, and  Princess 
Maleine,  the  pale 
and  precocious  little  girl  at  the  pool,  there  is  always  this 
tremulous  dark  tone  which  gives  the  young  artist's  produc- 
tions their  haunting  charm. 

Axel  Sjoberg  has  painted  with  strong  feeling  the  life  of 
nature  in  the  outer  skerries  of  his  native  city,  Stockholm, 
where  gulls  rest  on  a  sequestered  shoal  beneath  the  starry 
heavens,  or  swans  lift  their  wings  from  melting  cakes  of  ice 
and  fly,  dazzling  white,  over  the  blue  sea.  Aron  Gerle, 
born  in  Dalsland,  seems  able  to  extract  from  the  ugliest  city 
thoroughfare  the  same  mystic  melancholy  and  beauty  to 
which  Hjalmar  Soderberg  has  given  form  in  his  novels  with 
their  atmosphere  of  our  time.  Gerda  Wallander,  also  a 
native  of  Stockholm,  the  widow  of  Alf  Wallander,  has  suc- 


A     Disciple,      by     Olof      Sager- Nelson. 
Owned  by  the  artist  G.  Pauli,  Stockholm 


A  SLIRVi;V  OI'  SWKDISII   y\R'I 


197 


ccssliilly  i.'arric(.l  oiil  llic  happ)  iiica  ol  rcproelucing  the  Stuck- 
holin  of  our  clay  ;incl  has  ^i\  cii  us  picturesque  presentations  of 
streets  and  markets,  of  museum  lialls  and  amusement  places. 
Her  portrait  of  the  author  lljalmar  Soderherg,  in  Thiel's 
collection,  is  a  startlingly  well  done  likeness  and  an  admir- 
able character  study. 

Somewhat  rugged,  but  sound  and  honest,  is  the  art  of  the 
figure  painter,  Carl  Wilhelmson,  born  in  Fiskebiickskil,  who 


Going    Home    from    Church,    motif    from    Fiskebacicskil,    Bohuslj 
by  Carl  Wilhelmson.     In  the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm 


198  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

paints  the  people  of  the  west  coast  with  a  true  and  genuine 
feeling.  The  quality  of  trustworthiness  in  the  Swedish  coun- 
try workman  is  sympathetically  rendered  in  the  artist's  Farm 
Laborer,  in  Thiel's  gallery.  His  Harbor  Motif,  in  the 
Stockholm  Post  Office,  is  a  decorative  painting  of  good  effect, 
and  is  one  of  the  many  precious  gifts  that  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  city  by  Froken  Eva  Bonnier.  Wilhelmson  is 
one  of  our  very  best  artists.  His  drawing  and  his  art  of 
characterization  are  excellent,  and  this  is  not  least  apparent 
in  his  June  Evening,  showing  a  peasant  lad  playing  a  fiddle, 
a  picture  full  of  atmosphere  and  feeling  and  yet  a  genuine 
presentation  of  peasant  life.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of  strong, 
clear  colors:  tile  roofs  sparkling  in  the  sun,  red  mottled 
shawls,  dresses  of  the  blue  shade  of  the  cornflower,  and 
now,  since  he  has  taken  Spain  into  his  circle  of  motifs,  shin- 
ing white  walls.  His  picture  Church  Goers,  painted  in  1909 
and  representing  natives  of  Bohuslan  rowing  to  church,  is 
gaudy  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  but  he  is  so  chary  of  his 
pigments  that  the  texture  shows  through  in  most  of  his 
canvases. 

Louis  Sparre  was  born  near  Milan,  and  lived  for  a  long 
time  in  Finland,  where  he  made  stimulating  departures  in 
several  domains  of  art,  in  architecture,  and  the  crafts.  Sparre 
is  a  portrait  painter  of  merit  and  especially  accomplished 
in  the  use  of  color.  This  is  attested  in  the  portraits  of  Cor- 
nelia Kuylenstlerna,  Tollie  Zellman,  Count  Eugene  von 
Rosen,  Fru  Miirta  Key,  and  Herr  Hagelin.  Gosta  von  Hen- 
nigs,  born  in  Ostergotland,  Is  original  both  In  his  coloring 
and  in  his  choice  of  motifs.  The  picturesque,  brilliant,  and 
exotic  aspects  of  the  circus  and  the  music  hall  have  caught 
his  painter's  eye,  and  from  their  swirl  of  glaring  lights  and 
violent  motion  his  color-thirsty  brush  often  creates  excellent 
works  of  art  in  which  surfaces  of  pure  bright  color  stand  out 
like  bits  of  masonry  rather  than  paint,  while  the  character- 
ization of  the  clowns  and  dancing  girls  has  all  the  fresh- 
ness and  Instantaneity  of  Impressionism. 

The  twin  brothers  Emil  Osterman  and  Bernhard  Oster- 
man,  born  In  Vingaker,  resemble  each  other  both  in  their 


A  srk\'i:v  oi<  swi'iDisii  Airr 


199 


The  Blue  Clown,  by  Gosta  von  Hennigs.     In  the  collection  of  Klas 
FahrcBus,    Lidingon 

external  appearance  and  in  their  graceful  painting.  Even 
though  their  work,  like  that  of  many  other  artists,  is  uneven, 
nevertheless  they  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  Swedish  por- 
trait art.  In  our  time,  when  we  so  often  ask  what  purpose 
a  painting  serves,  and  where  it  should  be  placed  in  order  to 
give  us  pleasure,  while  so  often  our  question  brings  no 
answer,  it  is  a  real  satisfaction  to  remember  that  family 
portraits,  painted  with  reverence  and  honest  skill,  possessing 
both  character  and — what  so  many  artists  sadly  lack — taste, 
are  still  being  produced  in  our  land.  The  foremost  example 
of  Emil  Osterman's  portraits  is  perhaps  the  picture  of  Pro- 


200 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Frofessdr  C:\v\  C'unnan,  by  Emil  Osterman.     Owned  by  Fru  Curman 

fessor  Carl  Curman,  in  which  the  weight  of  authority,  the 
calm  assurance,  and  the  intellect  of  the  model  have  received 
adequate  expression.  An  excellent  picture  of  King  Gus- 
tavus  V  in  the  uniform  of  a  general — a  portrait  may  be 
meritorious  even  with  a  uniform^ — and  the  handsome  por- 
trait of  the  two  friends  Erik  Lindberg  and  Bernhard  Oster- 
man, in  black  evening  attire  against  a  white  wall,  with  the 
red  silk  of  the  sofa  and  the  topaz  yellow  lights  of  the  punch 
glass,  are  among  his  best  works,  and  this  is  at  least  equally 


A  SURVEY  (W  SWEDISH  ART  201 

true  of  the  representation  ol  Pastor  yMilher^er,  whieh  is 
full  of  hunioi"  and  eharaeter.  In  1916  he  linisheci  his  hir^e 
Studio  Picture,  a  painting  of  huge  dimensions  and  great 
merit  as  to  detail,  representing  the  artist  Emerik  Stenbcrg 
telhng  one  of  his  funny  stories  to  an  interested  audience  in 
Emil  Osterman's  studio.  This  work  will  prove  of  very  great 
interest,  not  least  from  an  historical  standpoint. 

In  the  rich  production  of  Bernhard  Osterman  may  be  men- 
tioned the  picture  of  Jonas  Lie  in  Gothenburg  Museum,  the 
interesting  type  of  Bishop  Billing  with  the  pale  face  against 
a  background  of  black  and  green,  the  noble  color  harmony 
and  characterization  in  his  portrait  of  Fru  Alice  Tigerschold, 
and  not  least  the  charming  picture  of  his  wife,  in  which 
grace  and  an  air  of  the  grande  dame  are  combined  to  form 
a  salon  portrait  in  the  best  sense. 

Pelle  Svedlund,  born  In  Gavle,  painted.  In  the  nineties, 
several  pictures  full  of  atmosphere  with  motifs  from  Bruges 
and  its  canals.  Vilhelm  Smith  has  executed  colorful  and  sub- 
stantive paintings  from  his  native  city,  Karlshamn,  as  well 
as  from  Italy  and  Africa.  Erik  Hedberg  has  a  strong  feel- 
ing for  the  characteristic  features  of  the  nature  and  people 
of  his  native  environment  In  Gastrlkland.  Edvard  Rosen- 
berg, a  native  of  Stockholm,  In  his  finely  sensitive  and  beau- 
tifully drawn  painting  A  March  Evening,  In  the  National 
Museum,  has  Infused  a  Northern  steel  timbre  Into  his  color. 
Emerik  Stenberg,  also  a  native  of  Stockholm,  pictures  In 
honest  and  conscientious  manner  the  people  of  Dalecarlla, 
and  shows  an  exceptional  power  of  characterization  In  his 
excellent  canvas  A  Wake  In  Leksand,  In  the  Gothenburg 
Museum.  He  has  painted  a  series  of  good  portraits,  among 
which  those  of  Professor  Rudin,  Colonel  Baron  Rosenblad, 
and  Professor  Oscar  Montellus  should  be  especially  noted. 
David  Wallln,  In  his  soulful  portraits  The  Wife  of  the 
Artist,  Fru  Sven  LIdman,  Georg  von  Rosen,  and  others, 
allows  the  figures  to  emerge  like  white  wraiths  from  the 
luminous  darkness. 

The  Swedish  note  Is  emphasized  and  often  very  cleverly 
caught  In  Gustav  Ankarcrona's  paintings,  treating  subjects 


202  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

from  old-fashioned,  comfortable  manor  houses  where  the 
guest  is  received  with  much  food  and  great  friendliness. 
Ankarcrona  draws  horses  particularly  well  and  likes  to  use 
them  as  accessory  figures  in  his  pictures.  Oscar  Hullgren, 
who  like  Ankarcrona  was  born  in  Smaland,  has  rendered  the 
sea  and  the  Swedish  coast  landscape  with  exceptional  fresh- 
ness. His  Harbor  of  Palermo  is  a  remarkably  good  paint- 
ing, and  very  interesting  from  an  atmospheric  standpoint. 

Gustav  Fjsestad,  a  native  of  Stockholm,  has  discovered 
the  decorative  element  of  lichen-covered  stumps  and  stones, 
and  has  painted  the  solitude  beneath  snow-laden  spruce  trees. 
FJEestad,  who  has  made  a  contribution  to  industrial  art 
through  his  designs  for  furniture  and  artistic  textile  fabrics, 
is  well  known  and  esteemed  abroad.  Otto  Hesselbom,  who 
died  in  1913,  was  much  admired  both  in  Germany  and  in 
Italy  for  his  serious,  decorative  pictures  of  the  lakes  and 
forests  of  his  native  Dalsland.  Not  until  later  did  this  thor- 
ough and  modest  artist  become  known  in  his  own  country. 
Another  artist  who  is  greatly  appreciated  In  Italy  and  on 
the  Continent  is  Fru  Anna  Boberg,  nee  Scholander,  of  Stock- 
holm, whose  numerous  canvases  with  motifs  from  Lofoten 
depict  the  magnificent  scenery  of  the  islands  with  picturesque 
effect. 

An  artist  who  lays  particular  stress  on  the  decorative,  as 
in  the  excellent  portrait  of  his  wife,  and  who  at  the  same 
time  revels  in  the  strongest  colors  in  his  pictures  from  the 
Orient  and  from  Italy,  is  OUe  Hjortzberg,  born  in  Stock- 
holm. His  decorations  in  Klara  Church  and  even  more  those 
of  the  auditorium  in  the  New  Normal  School  In  the  south 
quarter  of  Stockholm  bear  witness  to  wide  knowledge  and 
good  taste. 

Gunnar  Hallstrom,  also  a  native  of  Stockholm,  Is  gifted 
with  Imagination  and  with  a  certain  solidity  by  virtue  of 
which  he  goes  his  own  way.  He  seeks  first  of  all  character  in 
his  drawing,  and  paints  Swedish  peasants  and  Swedish  sport 
in  that  Malaren  environment  which  he  loves  most.  The 
artist,  who  lives  on  the  historical  Bjorko  In  Lake  Malaren, 
has  pictured  the  home  feeling  around  the  red-painted  houses 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWia)lSll  ART 


203 


The  Ski-runner,  drawing  by   Gunnar  Hallstrom.     Owned  by   Herr 
Clairemont,  Vienna 


surrounded  by  thick  lilac  hedges  and  the  plough  cutting  the 
meadow  flowers  and  the  turf  beneath  which  rest  the  bones 
of  the  forefathers;  he  has  also  sketched  and  painted  ski- 
runners  and  skaters  on  the  bays.  Two  Stockholm  artists 
are  Axel  Erdmann,  who  has  painted  his  native  city  in  a  series 
of  fine  and  colorful  pictures,  and  Rikard  Lindstrom,  who  has 
painted  the  Stockholm  Archipelago  and  also  the  Lofoten 
Islands.  In  the  canvases  of  the  latter  white  bodies  of  women 
appear  between  decorative  groups  of  trees  or  emerge  from 
the  dark  blue  water.  His  landscapes  in  brown  and  blue  have 
a  certain  pleasing  austerity. 

Among  the  artists  from  Skane  the  first  rank  is  held  by 
Anders  Trulson,  who  died  in  191 1,  and  the  painter  and 
etcher  Ernst  Norlind.  The  latter  employs  a  distinguished 
and  personal  scale  of  colors  In  grey  and  brown,  with  some- 
times a  cluster  of  yellow  flowers  or  red-beaked,  white  storks 
enlivening  the  pale  tones  of  the  landscape.  Trulson  painted 
good  landscapes  and  portraits,  among  them  the  strong  por- 
trait of  himself  in  the  National  Museum.  Ossian  Elgstrom, 
also  from  Skane,  has  become  the  artistic  discoverer  of  the 
Lapps,  With  wonderful  Intuition  and  an  Imagination  filled 
with  dazzling  colors  and  bloody  horrors,  he  produces  an 
impression  of  primltiveness  in  his  art.  His  sketches  appear 
like  the  visions  of  a  Lapp  in  whom  the  old  heathenism  has 
survived. 


204  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Beacon  Fires,  fresco  by  Axel  Torneman.    In  the  second  chamber  of 
the  Riksdag 

With  rich  and  Germanic  fantasy,  John  Bauer,  born  in 
Jonkoping,  created  a  charming  and  mystic  saga  world, 
inhabited  by  clumsy  and  ungainly  trolls,  with  lonely  cabins 
from  which  the  smoke  rises  straight  up  over  horizons  of 
pine  forests,  blue  in  the  distance,  and  where  fair-haired  wood- 
nymphs  are  glimpsed  among  the  trees.  Bauer  created  a 
beautiful  picture  of  Northern  womanhood  in  the  mural 
painting  Freja  in  the  Karlskrona  Girls'  School.  He  died  by 
an  accident  on  Lake  Wettern  in  191 8. 

A  pleasant  Swedish  quality,  fresh  and  youthful  with 
breezes  from  bays  and  summer  meadows,  with  gay  girls  on 
skis,  is  found  in  Torsten  Schonberg.  He  is  one  of  our  best 
designers  of  posters.  Einar  Nerman,  born  in  Norrkoping, 
is  a  cartoonist  with  a  fine  sense  of  style.  One  hardly  knows 
whether  to  admire  most  the  elegance  of  line  or  the  charac- 
terization in  his  cartoons;  these  and  his  illustrations  to  Fred- 
man's  Epistles,  which  appear  as  if  breathed  upon  the  paper 
and  filled  with  the  dream  of  Bellman's  Stockholm,  are  so 
far,  the  best  he  has  done.  Sigge  Bergstrom,  born  near  Filip- 
stad,  has  reawakened  Interest  in  the  artistic  possibilities  of 
the  woodcut,  and  has  also  done  good  portraits  and  land- 
scapes in  oil. 

Axel  Torneman,  a  Varmlander,  shows  great  decorative 
ability.  In  his  Night  Cafe  in  Paris,  in  Thlel's  Collection,  he 
has  produced  an  almost  mosaic-like  masterpiece  of  effective 


A  siiRVi-:v  oi'  swi;i)isii  art 


^05 


coloring.  With  big  loriiis  in  an  atmosphere  of  primeval 
dawn  he  has  painted  Thor's  Combat  with  the  Giants  in  the 
Ostermalm  School,  and  in  two  austere  but  decorative  fres- 
coes in  the  Second  Chamber  of  the  Riksdag  he  pictures 
Torgny  at  the  Thing  and  Engelbrekt  in  Orebro,  while  in 
the  symbolic  fresco  Beacon  Fires,  in  the  same  hall,  he  gives 
artistic  and  powerful  expression  to  the  defiant  forces  of  de- 
fense against  threatening  war.  Torneman's  paintings  often 
have  an  original  and  superb  color  tone. 

David  Tagtstrom,  of  Dalecarlia,  proves  in  his  portraits 
that  he  possesses  both  fine  taste  and  ability  to  conventional- 
ize in  a  personal  way. 

The  two  movements,  expressionism  and  cubism,  have  had 
a  number  of  followers  In  Sweden.  These  seek.  In  the  same 
way  as  their  French  masters,  to  conjure  up  new  values  of 
beauty  by  Intentional  and  extreme  deformations  of  reality 
as  well  as  by  a  new  conventional  scale  of  colors.  Among 
these  painters  are  Isaac  Grunewald,  Gosta  Sandels,  Leander 
Engstrom,  Arthur  C  :son  Percy,  and  many  others. 

Albert  Engstrom,  born  In  Smaland,  Is  Sweden's  greatest 
humorous  artist  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  that  we  have 
ever  had  in  this  domain.     He  is  thoroughly  Swedish  and  has 


The  Boy,  the  Princess,  and  the  Golden  Goose.     Fairy-tale  illus- 
tration by  Ivar  Arosenius 


206  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

sketched  our  people — especially  the  lower  classes — in  a  style 
that  is  equally  amusing  and  masterly,  Engstrom's  drawings 
of  Swedish  nature  and  Swedish  types  have  contributed  much 
to  the  artistic  education  of  the  general  public,  and  have 
taught  many  how  to  grasp  the  beauty  and  value  of  even 
the  most  rapid  sketches. 

Ivar  Arosenius  became  known  and  recognized  all  at  once 
through  an  exhibition  arranged  after  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  1909.  A  succulent,  full-blooded  humor  charac- 
terizes his  jocular  sketches  and  paintings.  Their  brutality, 
however,  proves  offensive  to  many.  They  have  the  same 
orgiastic  touch  that  distinguishes  Bellman's  songs,  and  in 
many  of  Arosenius's  paintings  the  strain  of  pathos  is  also 
very  marked.  The  wealth  of  his  imagination  is  inexhaust- 
ible, and  his  intuitive  psychology  is  seen  in,  for  example,  the 
initial  awakening  of  a  child's  mind  in  that  charming  little 
girl  who  stands  alone  watching  the  flame,  The  Girl  and  the 
Candle,  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  Arosenius  succeeds 
best  perhaps  in  his  fairy-tale  motifs,  born  as  they  are  of  a 
spirit  that  understands  better  than  any  one  else  in  our  coun- 
try the  soul  of  the  fairy-tale  in  all  its  mysticism,  humor,  and 
richness  of  color.  Yngve  Berg,  of  Stockholm,  has  a  peculiar 
gift  of  catching  physical  motion  with  his  drawing-pencil. 
His  adroit  toreadors,  his  dancers,  and  his  Bellman  illus- 
trations, executed  with  amazing  skill  and  taste  in  the  spirit 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  live  and  move  in  a  way  that  place 
him  in  the  very  front  rank  among  European  draughtsmen. 


X 


MODERN  PLASTIC  AND  DECORATIVE  ART 


IN  THE  field  of  sculpture  there  has  not  been  so  much 
activity  as  in  that  of  painting.  With  the  exception  of 
monuments  to  great  men — which  are  not  generally  de- 
signed to  satisfy  a  craving  for  beauty — works  of  sculpture 
are  not  ordered  either  by  the  State  or  by  individuals,  and 
for  that  reason  this  whole  branch  of  art  has  remained,  as  it 
were,  disconnected  and  outside  the  general  development. 

There  has  been  no  dearth  of  good  sculptors,  however. 
The  greatest  number  as  well  as  the  best  of  the  portrait 
statues  erected  in  this  country  during  the  eighties  and  nine- 
ties were  designed  by  John  Borjeson,  who  was  born  in 
Halland,  and  died  in  Gothenburg  in  19 lo.  The  whole  con- 
ventional apparatus  with  large  Spanish  cloaks  to  give  the 
figures  plasticity  is  brushed  aside  and  the  sculptor  strives, 
in  the  spirit  of  modern  art,  for  character.  He  found 
adequate  form  for  the  manly  courage  and  Swedish  vigor  of 
Geijer,  as  expressed  in  Geijer's  Thought,  a  symbolic  figure 
on  the  pedestal  of  the  Geijer  statue  in  Uppsala,  and  also  for 
the  aristocratic  bearing  of  Oxenstierna.  The  statue  of 
Scheele,  a  personification  of  introspective,  fruitful  mental 
activity,  has  the  combined  monumentality  and  character 
which  we  like  to  see  in  a  statue.  The  memorial  to  Oxen- 
stierna has  been  set  up  by  the  nobility  outside  of  Riddar- 
huset;  that  to  Scheele  is  in  Humlegarden  in  Stockholm.  The 
artist  has  reached  his  highest  level,  however,  in  the  eques- 
trian statue  of  Charles  X  Gustavus,  erected  in  1896  in  the 
market-olace  at  Malmo.  where  the  King  sits  calm  and  serene 

207 


208 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Karl  X  Gustavus.     Statue  by  John 
Borjeson 

on  his  large-limbed  horse,  looking  out  over  the  country  of 
Skane  like  an  imperious  but  popular  master. 

Teodor  Lundberg  has  created  a  magnificent  work  of  art 
in  The  Billow  and  the  Shore,  in  the  Royal  Palace.  It  is 
modern  in  feeling  and  form;  the  contrast  between  the  mas- 
culine and  the  feminine  is  effectually  emphasized,  and  the 
pose  gives  expression  to  a  vibrating  life  without  infringing 
on  the  plastic  character  of  the  work.  The  same  artist  has 
created  a  figure  full  of  power  and  vitality  in  Olavus  Petri, 
an  embodiment  of  Lutheran  courage,  erected  in  1898  outside 
the  Storkyrka  in  Stockholm.  Among  Lundberg's  other 
creations  the  stately  group  Svea  with  a  Fallen  Carolinian — 
the  so-called  Poltava  monument  on  the  Artillery  Grounds 
in  Stockholm — and  the  intimate,  nobly  composed  group  My 
Family  deserve  special  mention. 

The  tender  beauty  of  woman's  body  is  the  chief  subject 
of  Per  Hasselberg's  work.  In  the  beginning  he  was  some- 
what bound  by  the  French  conception  of  form,  but  soon  his 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH   AKI'  209 


The  Water-lily,  by  Per  Hasselberg.     In  marble  in  the   Gothenburg 
Museum 

own  personality  emerged,  clear  and  distinct.  The  Snow- 
drop, for  all  its  spring  loveliness,  does  not  attain  the  grace 
and  charm  and  the  dew-like  freshness  of  The  Frog,  a  figure 
executed  in  marble  in  1890  for  the  Gothenburg  Museum. 
Here  also,  in  the  midst  of  the  finest  examples  of  modern 
Swedish  art,  his  last  work,  The  Water-lily,  done  in  1893, 
the  year  before  his  death,  reposes  in  her  snow-white  beauty. 
The  Water-lily  rises  amidst  the  powerful  and  jubilant  fan- 
fares of  all  the  colors,  and  through  her  young  limbs  there 
passes  a  tremor  of  joy  at  the  wealth  of  existence.  It  is  a 
woman  without  any  academic  formulas,  resting  in  the  com- 
bined majesty  of  sleep  and  beauty. 

Hasselberg's  art  reveals  a  passionate  love  of  life  and  of 
eternal  blooming  youth.  In  The  Grandfather,  set  up  on 
the  lawn  of  Humlegarden  in  Stockholm,  he  has  grouped  in 
monumental  and  simple  fashion  the  old  man  and  the  boy 
who  continues  where  old  age  leaves  off,  thus  symbolizing 
the  constant  renewal  of  nature  in  spite  of  death  and  cor- 
ruption. Hasselberg,  who  was  a  zealous  participant  in  the 
Opposition    movement,    has    done    an    excellent    animated 


210  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

r 


Ernst  Josephson.    Bronze  bust  by  Per  Hasselberg. 
In  the  National   Museum  at  Stockholm 

bronze  bust,  now  In  the  National  Museum,  of  his  friend 
Ernst  Josephson. 

During  the  golden  periods  of  art  the  relation  between 
art  and  Industrial  art  has  been  intimate  and  fruitful.  It  was 
so  In  Greece,  and  It  was  so  during  the  Renaissance,  and 
In  the  eighteenth  century,  as  It  Is  In  Japan.  After  periods 
of  degeneracy  and  barbarism  In  industrial  art — brought 
on  by  the  misconception  that  machines  can  do  work  as  artis- 
tically, In  other  words  as  personally,  as  human  beings — 
new  forces  have  begun  to  work.  No  machine  in  the  world 
can  replace  an  artist;  no  loom  can  weave  a  Gobelin  tapestry 
as  a  skilled  artisan  does;  no  photographic  apparatus  can 
produce  so  good  a  portrait  as  a  good  painter,  any  more  than 


A  suKvr:Y  ov  s\vj;i)isii  art 


211 


Life.    Silver  dish  by  Christian  Eriksson.     Owned  by  Dr. 
Hjalmar  Lundbohm  in  Kiruna 

a  music  box  can  take  the  place  of  a  musician.  In  recent 
times  we  have  come  back  to  a  realization  of  the  fact,  which 
is  as  clear  as  day,  though  so  often  ignored,  that  beauty 
should  brighten  all  life,  that  paintings  and  statues  should 
be  found,  not  only  in  museums,  but  also  in  offices,  in  schools, 
on  street  corners,  in  barracks,  and  first  of  all  in  our  homes. 
What  we  need  is  gifted  and  capable  artists  to  set  the  stamp 
of  beauty  on  the  handicrafts. 

Christian  Eriksson,  born  near  Arvika,  has  something  of 
the  strong  life-sap  of  the  neo-Renaissance  in  his  art.  He 
studied  in  the  Technical  School  in  Stockholm,  then  in  Ham- 
burg, and  finally  in  Paris,  where  his  talent  was  given  its  true 
direction.  Whether  he  works  in  wood  or  silver,  in  marble 
or  iron,  he  shows  original  conception  and  infuses  a  new, 


212 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Dionysos  Troup,  by  Christian  Eriksson.     Detail  from  the  frieze  on 
the  Dramatic  Theatre  at  Stockholm 


modern  spirit  into  his  sculpture.  Freshness  and  humor  are 
found  in  all  that  Eriksson  has  done.  Because  he  puts  his 
soul  into  his  work,  his  walking-sticks,  goblets,  bookcases, 


A  SURVRV  OI'   SWEDISH   ART  213 

ami  locks  li;i\c  (lie  saiiie-  aesthetic  si^iiidcaiicc  as  his  large 
marhlcs.  Ilie  rehel  ol  l.iniie,  a  splendid  gift  of  Ilerr 
P.  iHirstcnhcrg  to  our  National  Muscutn,  is  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  pieces  of  sculpture  executed  in  recent  years.  In 
spite  of  its  large  dimensions,  it  is  full  of  warmth  and  feeling 
and  re\eals  an  ama/ing  bravura  in  the  treatment  of  the 
marble.  Eriksson's  bronze  vase  Enchantment  is  one  of  his 
most  successful  products  in  industrial  art.  Eike  his  large 
silver  dish  Eife,  it  bears  testimony  to  the  creator's  graceful 
technique  and  strong  feeling  for  nature.  Among  Eriksson's 
later  works  are  a  piece  of  sculpture  carved  in  wood,  The 
Crouching  Lapp,  in  the  Gothenburg  Museum,  and  Toe 
Dancing,  the  property  of  Herr  K.  O.  Bonnier,  carved  in 
light  maple,  in  which  he  has  succeeded  in  catching  an  instan- 
taneous movement  without  losing  the  exceptional  beauty  of 
form.  His  design  over  the  doorway  of  the  Sundsvall  Bank 
on  the  facade  facing  Fredsgatan  In  Stockholm  shows  a  man 
and  a  woman — the  latter  with  an  uncommonly  well-modelled 
body  and  a  head  full  of  life  and  vigor — symbolizing  lumber- 
ing and  shipping.  In  1905  Christian  Eriksson  exhibited  the 
designs  for  the  pedestals  of  two  flagpoles  which  are  now  put 
up  In  Saltsjobaden  near  Stockholm.  One  represents  summer 
sport,  the  other  and  more  successful  one,  outdoor  life  In 
winter  with  sleds  and  skates.  Eriksson  has  reached  his 
highest  level,  perhaps,  In  the  gigantic  reliefs  that  adorn 
the  facade  of  the  Dramatic  Theatre  In  Stockholm.  They 
depict  the  origin  of  the  theatre  from  the  Dionysos  cult  and 
the  Italian  masque,  and  are  filled  with  beauty  and  exuberant 
life.  The  opposite  mood,  piety,  resignation,  and  despair. 
Is  expressed  by  Eriksson  In  his  gilded  bronze  figures  on 
KIruna  Church.  The  most  monumental  work  he  has  exe- 
cuted Is  The  Archer,  done  In  19 16,  an  Engelbrekt  memorial 
on  Kornhamnstorg  In  Stockholm,  In  which  the  chief  figure, 
Instinct  with  a  concentrated  and  unfaltering  will  of  defense, 
Is  drawing  his  bow,  while  the  expression  of  strength  and 
tenacity  Is  underscored  by  an  Ingenious  composition.  The 
reliefs  represent  the  achievements  of  the  Dalecarlian  patriot 
In  the  service  of  freedom. 


214 


SCANDINAVIAN  AR\ 


Aron  Jerndahl  is  another  good  artist  wno  nas  developed 
from  the  field  of  handicraft.  Both  his  small  bronze  objects 
and  his  large  monumental  sculptures  from  the  life  of  work- 
ingmen  are  full  of  character  and  modern  in  the  best  sense. 

Carl  J.  Eldh  was  born  near  Uppsala  in  1873.  He  first 
assisted  in  the  restoration  of  Uppsala  Cathedral  and  later 
studied,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineties,  in  Paris.  In  France 
he  developed  his  unusual  gift  for  interpreting  the  qualities  of 
womanhood,  whether  of  motherly  tenderness,  of  innocent 
purity,  or  of  playful  provocativeness,  the  latter  most  beau- 
tifully, perhaps,  in  the  wooden  statuette  Brita,  and  in  the 
Sitting  Nude  Girl  in  wood  and  bronze.  Purity  of  form  and 
strength  of  expression  mark  the  high  relief  Reading,  an 
unusually  distinctive  figure  of  a  young  woman  showing  the 
repose  and  concentration  that  come  with  reading. 


Reading.    Relief  by  Carl  J.  Eldh,  in  Kungsholmen  High  School, 
Stockholm 


A  SURVi;:(   OF  SWi'DISlI  ART  215 

Among  his  statut?*  and  statuettes  are  the  companion 
figures  Nils  Kreuger  with  his  good-humored  assurance  and 
Karl  Nordstrom  with  his  pugnacious  toss  of  the  head.  The 
sketch  for  the  statue  of  August  Strindbcrg,  a  gigantic,  de- 
fiant, naked  Titan,  dates  from  19 16.  Eldh's  granite  reliefs 
of  playing  and  bathing  boys  adorn  the  exterior  of  Ostermalm 
School  in  Stockholm.  The  group  Youth  with  the  naked 
boy  and  girl  and  the  statue  Young  Girl,  both  in  the  National 
Museum,  reveal  a  tendency  toward  monumentality  during 
his  later  period.  In  the  Gunnar  Wennerberg  Monument, 
erected  in  Minneapolis  and  in  Stockholm,  in  19 16,  Eldh  has 
created  in  an  apt  and  original  way  an  idealized  picture  of  a 
student  of  1850,  full  of  romanticism,  geniality,  and  self- 
confidence.  The  statue,  which  is  excellently  placed  near  the 
bay  Djurgardsbrunnsviken  in  Stockholm,  Is  a  gift  to  the  city 
by  Herr  John  Josephson. 

The  Smalander  David  Edstrom,  who  returned  from 
America  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  after  a  boyhood  full  of 
hardships,  studied  in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  and  de- 
veloped into  an  excellent,  though  often  a  fantastic,  artist. 
There  is  both  strong  imagination  and  feeling  for  form  in 
the  granite  head  which  he  calls  Sphinx,  and  however  strained 
some  of  his  sculptures  may  be,  many  of  his  portrait  heads 
— as  the  figure  of  Intendant  Romdahl — attain  an  intensity 
and  sculptural  effect  which  appear  to  best  advantage,  per- 
haps, in  the  figure  of  the  financier  and  art  patron,  Ernest 
Thiel,  with  its  expression  of  iron  will. 

One  of  the  foremost  of  contemporary  sculptors,  by  virtue 
of  his  exuberant  creative  powers  and  the  originality  of  his 
conceptions,  is  Carl  Milles.  He  was  born  near  Uppsala 
and  received  his  artistic  training  first  in  the  Technical  School 
in  Stockholm,  then  during  a  residence  In  Paris  and  Munich. 
In  Paris,  In  1900,  Milles  executed  his  first  masterpiece,  a 
delightful  little  statuette  of  a  Dancer  moving  with  proud 
grace,  but  he  made  his  mark  In  1901  with  the  design  for  the 
Sten  Sture  Monument  which,  however,  proved  difficult  to 
place  suitably.  The  sketch  Itself  was  worked  over  several 
times  after  1901. 


16 


SCANDINAVIAN  Ai^T 


Ernest  Thiel.     Bronze  bust  by  David 
Edstrom.    Owned  by  Herr  Thiel 


With  graphic  realism  and  with  deep  psychological  pene- 
tration, he  modelled  the  portrait  bust  of  Julius  Kronberg,  In 
1904.  His  groups  of  elephants,  giant  lizards,  bears,  and 
many  other  strangely  formed  historic  and  pre-historic, 
zoologic  and  mythologic  creatures  have  a  kind  of  grotesque 
monumentallty.  He  has  designed  bear  groups  in  the  form 
of  two  large  spheres  made,  as  Michael  Angelo  would  have 
them,  so  that  they  "could  be  rolled  down  a  mountain  without 
breaking."  They  are  placed  in  the  Berzelius  Park  in  Stock- 
holm and  are  a  gift  of  Eva  Bonnier. 

Milles,  who  works  with  marvellous  ease,  is  constantly 
seeking  new  paths.     From  modelling  the  exuberantly  life- 


A   SlIRVi:^    OI'    SWl'DlSll    ARr 


217 


like  Danciiijj^  ChiKircii  on 
the  bases  of  the  cokiniiisiii 
the  higgia  of  the  Dramatic 
I'heatre,  lie  turns  to  the 
keen  characterization  in 
the  features  of  the  aged 
Franzcn  on  the  monument 
with  the  lovely  group 
Selma  and  Fanny  on  the 
pedestal.  This  monument 
was  raised  in  Harnosand, 
in  19 10.  An  almost  im- 
pressionistic statue  of 
Scheele  was  set  up  in  Kop- 
ing,  in  19 12,  while  an 
austere  conventionalism 
marks  the  well  known  por- 
trait in  wood  of  Levertin's 
suffering  seer  countenance, 
in  the  National  Museum. 
A  stamp  of  realistic  monu- 
mentality  is  found  in  the 
brooding  head  of  the  au- 
t  h  o  r  Gustaf  Stridsberg, 
which  has  been  cut  in 
granite  in  masterly  fash- 
ion. In  the  giant  figure 
of  Gustavus  Vasa  in 
painted  plaster  of  Paris, 
set  up  in  1907  in  the  hall 
of  Nordiska  Museet,  the 
artist  employs  a  severity 
of  form  which  is  well 
suited  to  this  symbol  of 
governmental  authority  and  jurisdiction,  to  him  "who  built 
our  Sweden  from  floor  to  roof." 

In  his  larger  and  smaller  reliefs  and  groups  in  stone  or 
bronze  of  women  dancers  of  antiquity  Milles  employs  forms 


Scheele 


Statue    in   bronze   by 
Carl  Milles 


218 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Selma  and  Fanny,  by  Carl  Milles.     Group  in   black  granite  on  the 
pedestal    of    the   monument  to    Franzen    at  Harnosand 

that  closely  resemble  archaic  Greek  art.  For  Uppenbarel- 
sekyrkan  at  Saltsjobaden,  which  has  been  ornamented  with 
excellent  sculptures  by  Milles,  he  has  executed  two  monu- 
mental bronze  doors,  on  which  he  depicts  sin  and  grace  with 
archaizing  naivete  in  imitation  of  the  door  in  Hildesheim, 
all  with  wonderful  Imagination  and  often  with  great  beauty. 


A  SUKVi:V  OV  S\VIiL»i.ll  ART 


219 


The  Hours   of  Day  and  Night.     Marble  clock  by 
Carl    Milles 

It  Is  to  be  hoped  that  Milles's  gigantic  Monument  of 
Industry,  a  monumental  fountain  on  which  symbolic  figures 
full  of  strength  in  the  Michael  Angelo-Rodin  style  ornament 
the  pedestal,  will  be  erected  in  Stockholm  despite  all  diffi- 
culties that  threaten  to  obstruct  it.  Upon  the  fagade  of  En- 
skilda  Banken  in  Stockholm,  Milles  has  represented  in  four 
groups,  with  a  kind  of  conventionalized  realism,  the  periods 
of  trade  development  from  bartering  to  world  commerce. 
The  best  work,  perhaps,  among  his  small  pieces  of  sculpture 
is  the  marble  clock  made  in  19 15  with  the  hours  of  Day 


220 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Dancers.     Stone  sculpture  by  Carl  Milles.     In  the  Glyp- 
tothek,  Copenhagen 

and  Night  in  the  form  of  nude,  young  women  carved  with 
wonderful  skill  and  calling  to  mind  the  Hellenic  art  of  the 
sixth  century  before  the  Christian  Era.  A  feeling  for  style 
is  happily  combined  in  this  aspiring  artist  with  the  fullest 
measure  of  creative  genius. 


A  sukvi:v  oi'  s\vi':i)isii  \\<\'         221 

I'.ric  l\a  I  acl-l\;ull)cr^-  has  cxcculcti  lorcclully  sculptured 
aiul  well  charactcri/cd  portrait  heads  in  hroii/.c,  marble,  and 
granite,  of  the  sculptor  Ciustal"  Sandherg,  Dr.  (jregor  Pauls- 
son,  Vvu  l*'di/,abcth  Laurin,  and  little  (lunilia  Clason,  the 
last-named  in  the  National  Museum,  l^legance  and  good 
taste  are  characteristic  of  Otto  Strandman.  His  small 
figures  in  bronze,  precious  metals,  or  wood,  sometimes  com- 
bined in  one  design  with  artistically  formed  useful  objects, 
such  as  ink-wells  and  similar  things,  are  modelled  with 
exquisite  charm.  In  his  Workingman,  erected  in  19 17  in  the 
Vasa  Park  in  Stockholm,  Gottfrid  Larsson  has  succeeded 
exceptionally  well  in  his  endeavor  to  introduce  the  common 
laborer  into  sculpture.  Olof  Ahlgren  has  executed  char- 
acteristic portrait  heads  in  red  granite.  Upon  the  tomb- 
stone of  Alf  Wallander  near  Solna  he  has  carved  a  mourning 
figure  in  black  granite  in  remarkably  harmonious  composi- 
tion with  the  socle.  Both  In  a  number  of  small  ceramic 
drinking  fountains  in  the  New  Technical  School  and  in  a 
few  sculptural  groups,  designed  In  harmony  with  the  build- 
ing, Ivar  Johnsson,  has  proved  himself  one  of  our  most 
promising  younger  sculptors. 

Axel  Pettersson  of  Doderhult  occupies  a  unique  place. 
He  Is  a  carver  of  humorous  figures  In  wood  of  high  artistic 
merit.  With  subtle  skill  and  with  a  fusion  of  modernity, 
rococo,  and  Chinese  art,  Gerhard  Henning,  a  native  of 
Stockholm,  designs  miniature  figures  reproduced  by  the 
Royal  Danish  Porcelain  Company.  Henning  Is  also  an 
etcher  of  note.  Adolf  LIndberg  has  made  a  very  valuable 
contribution  to  the  art  of  medal  engraving,  which  entered  a 
new  golden  age  In  France  through  Roty  and  Chaplain.  His 
medals  and  portrait  medallions  show  beauty  of  line  as  well 
as  of  characterization.  They  filled  a  real  need  at  a  time 
when  faded  photographs,  mediocre  woodcuts,  or  fogged 
autotypes  were  considered  good  enough  to  preserve  the 
features  of  even  eminent  men  for  posterity.  His  son  Erik 
LIndberg  continues  with  honor  In  the  same  noble  and  endur- 
ing domain  of  art.  The  Swedish  Nobel  medals  are  from  his 
hand. 


222  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Industrial  art  is  making  a  stand  against  all  cheap  orna- 
mentation, and  it  is  particularly  in  an  important  field,  where 
bad  taste  has  been  allowed  to  spread  and  propagate  in  the 
most  unhampered  and  shameless  fashion,  namely  in  the 
manufacture  of  porcelain,  that  the  Stockholm  artist  Alf 
Wallander  has  done  pioneer  work  for  us.  Wallander  was 
a  good  painter,  but  he  realized  that  the  artist's  eye  and 
his  capacity  for  energetic  work  have  a  large  mission  to  per- 
form in  the  industrial  arts.  Vases,  lamps,  and  dishes 
fashioned  by  him  disclose  new  fields  conquered  for  art,  while 
in  the  textile  industry  also,  in  woven  fabrics,  he  has  made 
successful  innovations.  Of  greatest  moment,  however,  is 
the  contribution  he  has  made  to  the  products  of  the  Ror- 
strand  factories.  He  died  in  19 14.  In  the  same  field, 
Gunnar  Wennerberg  did  a  similar  service  for  the  porcelain 
factories  of  Gustafsberg. 

In  textile  art,  the  society  Handarbetets  vanner  (the 
Friends  of  Handicraft)  has  worked  successfully,  since  1874, 
to  preserve  and  revive  old  methods  of  weaving,  to  collect 
patterns,  and  in  general  to  lift  needle  work  to  a  higher 
artistic  level.  The  most  important  achievement  of  the 
society  is  undoubtedly  its  revival  of  interest  in  the  art  of 
tapestry  weaving,  which  in  its  simpler  forms  had  been  pre- 
served by  our  peasantry.  The  only  woven  piece  of  tapestry 
with  a  modern  figure  motif  that  was  made  in  Sweden  during 
the  nineteenth  century  was  one  woven  by  the  above-men- 
tioned society  after  a  design  by  Carl  Larsson.  It  repre- 
sents A  Catch  of  Crayfish,  executed  with  exquisite  taste 
and  skill,  both  landscape  and  figures  being  slightly  conven- 
tionalized. The  tapestry  is  hung  in  the  Museum  of  Indus- 
trial Arts  in  Copenhagen. 


XI 


ARCHITECTURE  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE 
TWENTIETH  CENTURY 


BOTH  private  and  public  buildings  erected  in  the  sixties 
and  seventies  were,  as  a  rule,  without  artistic  signifi- 
cance, and  the  cheap  materials  employed  often 
entailed  a  careless  treatment  of  details.  The  most  note- 
worthy activity  was  the  rebuilding  or  so-called  restoration  of 
our  old  churches.  This  was  usually  carried  out  on  the  theory 
that,  when  the  date  of  the  original  building  had  been  deter- 
mined, all  subsequent  additions  should  be  removed,  where- 
upon the  church  should  be  provided  in  the  cheapest  possible 
way  with  spire  and  ornaments  In  the  original  style  as  the 
restorers  supposed  It  would  have  looked  had  It  been  com- 
pleted all  at  once.  These  restorations,  often  based  on  the 
most  thorough  knowledge,  have  resulted  In  robbing  the 
churches  of  their  historical  Interest  and  the  venerable  per- 
sonal character  they  once  had — and  all  In  the  name  of 
historical  style!  It  was  after  an  Inspection  of  Uppsala 
Cathedral,  which  had  been  restored  In  the  nineties,  that 
an  English  authority  remarked  in  a  technical  journal,  "I 
realize  now  that  something  worse  than  fire  may  befall  a 
building." 

Helgo  Zetterwall,  who  died  in  1907,  devoted  himself  with 
great  zeal  and  energy,  but  with  little  success,  to  restoration 
work.  The  stately  building  of  the  North  Latin  School  In 
Stockholm  was  erected  by  him  In  1880  in  the  style  of  the 
Florentine  Renaissance.  The  handsome  Renaissance  facade 
of  Skandlnaviska  Kreditaktiebolaget  in  Stockholm,  facing 

223 


224  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Storkyrkobrlnken,  was  constructed  In  1876  by  Ernst  Jacobs- 
son,  who  died  in  1905.  Artificial  stone  with  half  columns  of 
porphyry  was  used  for  material.  During  the  eighties  it  was 
the  custom  to  allow  the  wall  surfaces  to  remain  unplastered, 
exposing  the  brick,  and  to  limit  the  plastering  to  window 
casements  or  else  to  construct  these  of  cut  stone.  The  latter 
was  used  in  the  University  House  in  Uppsala,  which  was 
erected  in  1887  by  Herman  Holmgren.  The  magnificent 
main  entrance  makes  a  very  imposing  impression  with  its 
large  dimensions  and  excellent  materials. 

During  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
there  was  great  activity  both  in  private  and  public  construc- 
tion In  Sweden,  not  least  In  the  rapidly  growing  capital.  A 
number  of  schools,  banks,  and  barracks  were  erected,  among 
the  latter  the  barracks  of  the  Horse  Guards  on  Sturevagen 
near  Stockholm  by  Erik  Josephsson.  He  also  built  In  the 
French  baroque  style  the  stately  new  bank  edifice  of  Skandi- 
naviska  Kreditaktiebolaget.  This  building  forms  a  part  of 
the  surroundings  of  Gustaf  Adolfs  torg — a  square  which 
has  unfortunately  suffered  in  architectonic  respects  by  the 
demolition  of  the  old  Opera  House.  The  interior  produces 
a  severe,  imposing  effect,  with  its  huge  Doric  columns  which 
occupy  the  centre  of  the  background.  Stress  is  laid  upon 
beauty  of  form  and  materials  with  sumptuous  simplicity  and 
without  regard  to  cost.  The  Worklngmen's  Institute  In 
Stockholm,  which  was  erected  In  an  admirable  way  by  Carl 
Moller,  should  also  be  mentioned. 

A  large  number  of  tenement  houses  were  built  at  this  time 
along  our  streets.  The  fagades  were  over-loaded  with  de- 
generate neo-Renalssance  ornaments  of  mechanical  make, 
often  of  cement,  which  after  a  year  or  two  precipitates  a 
salt  that  disfigures  the  walls  by  large  white  spots.  Often  the 
architect  was  Ignored  by  the  contractor.  The  watch-word 
became  "speed  and  cheapness,"  and  In  most  cases  a  building 
was  put  up  without  even  a  thought  of  consulting  an  artis- 
tically trained  architect.  Beautiful  old  houses  were  torn 
down  without  the  slightest  reverence;  straight  thorough- 
fares were  made  to  cut  each  other  at  right  angles;  and  a 


A  SURVEY  OK  SWEDISH  ART  225 

deadly  dullness  spread  ever  the  small  towns  that  were  for- 
merly so  charming,  ovcv  the  ruined  country  churches,  and 
o\er  the  new  quarters  in  Stockholm,  But  even  then  a  gen- 
eration of  architects  was  growing  up,  who  combined  thor- 
ough technical  studies  with  a  keen  desire  to  reinstate  beauty 
in  its  proper  place,  and,  besides,  to  reintroduce  natural 
stone. 

The  prestige  of  architects  has  increased  considerably 
during  the  last  decades.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that 
an  artistically  trained  expert  should,  if  ever,  be  consulted 
in  the  construction  of  buildings  that  are  to  beautify  or  dis- 
figure a  city  for  centuries.  Stockholm  has  had  the  misfor- 
tune that  its  largest  monumental  building  of  our  time  has 
been  placed  in  such  a  way  as  to  conceal  partly  and  take  away 
from  the  effect  of  the  Royal  Palace,  contrary  to  the  wishes 
of  almost  all  architects  and  others  trained  in  matters  of 
art.  This  has  from  the  beginning  made  many  distrustful  of 
the  Riksdag  building,  for  which  designs  were  drawn  by 
Aron  Johansson.  One  would  have  preferred  to  have  had 
this  building  different  and  situated  somewhere  else. 

The  so-called  Danvlks  Hospital,  erected  with  fine  taste 
by  Aron  Johansson,  Is  exceptionally  Impressive,  and  has 
been  given  a  splendid  location  commanding  the  harbor  of 
Stockholm.  The  only  trouble  is  that  the  form  and  purpose 
of  the  building  do  not  harmonize.  A  home  for  the  aged 
poor  should  not  appear  like  a  palace,  although  It  is  an 
especially  pleasing  sense  of  humanity  that  makes  the  public 
provide,  not  only  a  suitable,  but  also  a  comfortable  home 
for  those  who  have  worked  themselves  tired  and  old  with- 
out economic  success.  In  Denmark  and  Germany  we  find 
pleasant  homes  for  the  aged,  but  not  very  often  In  Sweden. 

The  Opera  House  of  Gustavus  III  has  been  replaced  by 
a  very  large  and  very  expensive  building  erected  after  plans 
by  Axel  Anderberg.  The  wall  surfaces  are  finished  In 
plaster,  but  with  window  casements  and  pilasters  of  stone. 
The  style  Is  a  variety  of  the  baroque  and.  In  part,  gives  a 
very  good  effect.  The  Interior  has  an  unusually  beautiful 
and  Imposing  vestibule,  but  the  auditorium  and  the  lobby 


226 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Adelsward   House   in   Stockholm,   designed   by   Gustav   Clason 

are  Impaired  by  showy  gilding  and  very  conventional  deco- 
rations. The  lobby,  however,  is  brightened  by  Carl  Lars- 
son's  fresh-colored  paintings  in  the  ceiling  and  the  lunettes. 
The  royal  lobby  is  ornamented  by  good  decorative  paintings 
by  Prince  Eugen  and  Georg  Pauli.  Anderberg  has  created 
an  exceptionally  dignified  and  suitable  ensemble  of  brick 
buildings  in  the  stately  edifice  of  the  Swedish  Museum, 
dedicated  in  191 6,  and  in  the  neighboring  establishments 
and  houses  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  In  Frescati  near 
Stockholm.  The  expensive,  over-decorated  marble  building 
of  the  Dramatic  Theatre,  beautified  by  much  good  art  and 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWEDISH  ART  227 

disfigured  by   poor   art,   is   a   work   of   J-rcdrik  J.illjckvist. 

The  Nordiska  Museet  building  at  the  entrance  to  Djur- 
garden  in  Stockhohn,  "this  giant  offspring  of  one  man's 
energy,"  was  completed  in  1907.  iLverything  there,  from 
the  foundation  to  the  ceiling,  is  of  the  very  best  material. 
With  its  gables  calling  to  mind  the  Vasa  age,  its  genuine 
Swedish  character,  and  the  huge  dimensions  of  its  hall,  this 
edifice  is  an  ornament  to  the  city  and  an  honor  to  the  North. 
Isac  Gustav  Clason,  a  native  of  Dalecarlia,  after  whose 
drawings  Nordiska  Museet  was  erected,  has  also  made  very 
Important  contributions  to  residential  architecture.  The 
enormous  Biinsow  House  near  Strandvagen,  constructed 
after  a  motif  from  the  French  neo-Renalssance,  Is  perhaps 
the  first  apartment  house  In  Stockholm  In  which  both  the 
material — brick  and  sandstone — and  the  style  are  of  a  dig- 
nified character.  In  Imitation  of  forms  from  the  Swedish 
residential  architecture  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Clason 
has  created  one  of  our  most  celebrated  and  substantial 
private  residences,  the  Adelsward  house  at  2  Drottning- 
gatan.  Clason  has  also  built  Sweden's  only  private  palace 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  magnificent  residence  of  Count 
W.  v.  Hallvyl.  The  fagade  of  reddish  sandstone  points  to 
Spanish  forms;  the  portal  Is  constructed  of  smooth-cut 
granite  In  Imposing  dimensions,  and  above  It  Is  enblazoned 
the  family  coat-of-arms.  The  house  Is  finished  throughout 
with  costly  luxurlousness — a  real  palace  in  the  midst  of  so- 
called  palaces.  Clason's  activity  as  an  architect  has  been  of 
the  greatest  significance.  He  has  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  the  materials,  and  has  done  exceptional  work  In 
purifying  the  general  taste.  In  the  mighty  forms  of  the 
Norrkoping  Town  Hall,  which  was  constructed  of  brick, 
In  1 9 10,  Clason  has  given  an  Imposing  expression  of  public 
dignity  and  power.  The  Centralbank  on  Gustaf  Adolfs  torg 
In  Stockholm  was  finished  in  19 14.  The  plans  were  drawn 
by  Clason  in  French  baroque  and  became  the  determining 
style  for  the  north  side  of  the  marketplace. 

The  Davidson  House  on  Gustaf  Adolfs  torg,  with  Its 
sandstone  facade,  was  erected  In  1886  by  Gustaf  Lindgren. 


228  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Among  monumental  edifices  the  building  of  the  Academy  of 
Arts,  designed  by  Erik  Lallerstedt,  occupies  a  conspicuous 
place  by  virtue  of  its  tasteful  exterior  ornamentation  in  the 
Italian  neo-Renaissance.  The  Kungsholmen  Municipal 
Building,  of  exquisite  material  and  beautiful  proportions, 
and  the  Vasteras-Bergslags  Railroad  Building  in  Stockholm, 
with  its  unique  roof,  are  also  designed  by  him.  His  most 
distinguished  work  is  the  palatial  building  of  the  Trygg  In- 
surance Company  in  Stockholm,  completed  in  1909.  Both 
its  forms  and  material  bespeak  a  solidity  which  from  all 
viewpoints — not  least  from  an  artistic  one — inspires  confi- 
dence. Lallerstedt  is  the  creator  of  the  imposing  Technical 
High  School  in  Stockholm,  which  is  a  credit  to  our  engineers 
as  well  as  to  the  architect  himself. 

Several  business  offices  were  erected  soon  after  1890. 
The  most  satisfactory  from  an  aesthetic  and  practical  point 
of  view  is  the  Centralpalats  in  Stockholm,  constructed  of 
Orsa  sandstone  with  a  framework  of  iron.  The  architect, 
Ernst  Stenhammar,  also  built  the  Hotel  Royal  whose  winter- 
garden  court,  by  its  impressiveness  and  its  picturesque 
motifs,  calls  to  mind  the  Venetian  palaces,  and  is  probably 
from  the  standpoint  of  pure  beauty  one  of  the  most  magnifi- 
cent places  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Ludvig  Peterson  has 
done  good  work  in  the  architecture  of  private  buildings.  In 
1889  he  erected  the  Hoganas  warehouse  in  Stockholm  of 
brick  in  various  colors,  and  was  particularly  successful  in 
giving  to  it  an  expression  of  massive  power,  thereby  ingeni- 
ously letting  the  material  itself  advertise  the  goods  sold 
inside.  Peterson  also  designed  the  plans  of  Konstnarshuset 
(the  Artists'  House)   in  Stockholm. 

Ferdinand  Boberg,  born  in  Dalecarlia,  is  an  architect 
who,  notwithstanding  his  obvious  admiration  for  the  archi- 
tecture of  America  and  Spain,  seeks  new  forms.  At  the 
Exposition  in  Stockholm,  in  1897,  his  white  Spanish  Hall  of 
Arts,  with  its  decorations,  its  loggia,  and  the  interior  with 
imposing  perspectives  beneath  the  nobly-formed  vaults, 
aroused  general  admiration.  The  Industrial  Arts  Building, 
in   1909,  in  Stockholm,  was  a  work  of  perfect  unity  and 


A  SUKVEV  OI'   S\Vi:i)ISIl   AKI" 


229 


Portal  of  the  Electrical  Works  in  Stockholm,  de- 
signed by  Ferdinand  Boberg 


impressiveness.  This  time  also  Boberg  imitated  the  Span- 
ish; dazzling  white  walls  encircled  picturesque  courts.  The 
main  architectural  scheme  of  the  Malmo  Exposition  in  19 14 
was  Boberg's  creation.  It  was  finished  in  white  with  motifs 
from  church  walls  and  with  corbie-step  gables,  and  had  a 
majestic  art  hall  of  severe,  dignified  simplicity.  Of  more 
substantial  material  is  his  Electrical  Works  in  Stockholm. 
The  portal  toward  Regeringsgatan  indicates,  by  its  orna- 
mentation of  wires  and  incandescent  lamps  carved  in  huge 
blocks  of  limestone,  the  purpose  of  the  building,  and  every 
detail  suggests  that  it  is  a  place  for  the  generation  of  a 
mighty  natural  power.     Boberg's  Post  OflSce  in  Stockholm 


230  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

has  that  combination  of  massive  strength  with  a  goldsmith's 
delicacy  of  ornamentation  which  is  the  distinguishing  mark 
of  his  art.  In  the  Malmo  Post  Office  Boberg  has  again 
created  a  building  that  is  an  ornament  to  the  city.  He  has 
also  been  very  successful  in  Rosenbad  near  Norrstrom, 
where  the  external  decoration  and  the  color  scheme — white 
and  green — are  both  extraordinarily  original,  and,  what 
is  more  important,  beautiful.  Boberg's  energetic  efforts  to 
give  even  factory  buildings  an  attractive  form  has  been  of 
great  significance.  His  Gas  Works  near  Vartan  gives  an 
impression  of  massive  power  eminently  suitable  for  a  struc- 
ture of  that  kind.  Some  of  Boberg's  designs  are  in  a  sense 
inorganic  and  lacking  in  monumental  qualities.  This  is 
particularly  noticeable  in  Prince  Vilhelm's  residence  at 
Djurgarden,  in  which  neighborhood  he  has  also  designed  the 
residences  of  Prince  Eugen  and  Herr  Ernest  Thiel. 

Through  the  splendid  generosity  of  the  banker,  Knut 
Wallenberg,  Uppenbarelsekyrkan  was  built  in  Saltsjobaden 
after  designs  by  Boberg,  and  decorated  lavishly  with  exqui- 
site works  of  art.  The  interior  is  a  combination  of  grandeur 
and  sanctity,  two  qualities  that  may  be  united  in  the  Byzan- 
tine church  style,  but  are  seldom  found  in  the  churches  con- 
structed in  our  day.  Byzantine  influence  is  clearly  revealed 
both  in  the  interior  architectural  forms  and  in  the  decora- 
tions executed  by  Hjortzberg. 

Boberg  has  designed  the  palatial  business  building  of 
Nordiska  Kompaniet  in  Stockholm,  built  with  solid  and 
expensive  simplicity,  and  with  a  practical  application  of  what 
German  and  American  technique  has  accomplished  in  this 
field.  Reliefs  by  Milles,  symbolizing  different  phases  of 
trade  and  commerce,  adorn  the  facade  facing  Hamngatan. 
Boberg's  sketches  of  interesting  old  houses,  bridges,  mills, 
blacksmith  shops,  and  so  on,  will  form  an  excellent  work  of 
historical  importance. 

Carl  Westman  was  born  in  Uppsala.  After  studying  and 
practising  his  profession  in  North  America,  he  returned  and 
by  his  virile  and  purposeful  work  has  become  one  of  our 
most  Important  architects.     Westman  built  the  sanatorium 


A  SURVEY  OF  SWlCDISll  ARr  231 


The  Court-house  of  Stockholm,  designed  by  Carl  West- 
man 

Romanas,  near  Sommen  in  Smaland,  and  the  house  of  the 
Medical  Association,  in  Stockholm,  where  every  detail,  such 
as  lattice-work,  light  fixtures,  and  the  like  was  given  its 


232  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

characteristic  touch  by  the  artist  himself.  He  was  also  a 
furniture  designer.  Hogberga,  where  the  art  patron 
Fahraeus  lives  among  his  wonderful  collections  of  Swedish, 
Norwegian,  French,  and  Chinese  art,  is  Westman's  work. 
This  brick  building  is  situated  near  the  channel  on  Lidingo, 
and  makes  a  stately  appearance  from  the  top  of  the  hill 
overlooking  the  Japanized,  pine-covered  terraces.  These 
three  edifices,  all  so  different  but  equally  perfect,  have  dem- 
onstrated to  us  the  value  of  Carl  Westman.  His  master- 
piece, however,  is  the  Stockholm  Court-house,  near  Scheele- 
gatan  on  Kungsholmen,  completed  in  19 15.  This  mighty 
structure,  looming  in  the  austere  solemnity  proper  for  its 
serious  purpose,  is  topped  by  a  huge  tower  covered  with 
copper.  The  upper  part  of  the  main  portal  is  adorned  with 
figures  representing  the  judge  and  two  guilty  prisoners, 
sculptured  by  Christian  Eriksson;  the  lower  part  is  beautified 
by  excellent,  strongly  conventionalized  small  reliefs  by 
Gustav  Sandberg,  representing  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins. 

Huge  dimensions,  smooth  surfaces  suggestive  of  Vadstena 
Abbey,  a  certain  severity  In  the  ornamentation  as  is  fitting 
In  a  house  of  law,  a  genuinely  Swedish  quality  together  with 
freshness  and  boldness  of  execution,  all  contribute  to  make 
Stockholm's  Court-house  a  work  of  special  significance  in 
what  It  presages  for  modern  Swedish  architecture.  The 
Interior  harmonizes  with  the  exterior.  It  Is  very  substantial 
In  its  appointments  with  both  amusing  and  exquisite  details, 
often  full  of  meaning,  as,  for  example,  the  colossal  Vala's 
Column,  an  enormous  block  of  stone  sculptured  by  Sand- 
berg, on  which  the  wisdom  of  the  Eddas  concerning  crime 
and  final  atonement  Is  represented  in  extremely  conventional- 
ized low  reliefs;  and  the  room  where  marriages  are  per- 
formed, which  Is  ornamented  with  graceful  and  imaginative 
paintings  by  FIlip  Mansson.  The  same  vigor  and  solidity 
that  characterize  the  Court-house  are  found  in  Westman's 
Museum  of  Industrial  Arts  In  Gothenburg. 

The  Stockholmer  Ragnar  Ostberg  belongs  to  the  Swedish 
architects  who  are  keenly  Interested  in  all  vital  architecture, 
whether  old  or  new,  and  has  trained  himself  In  his  profes- 


A  siikvi;v  oi'  swi'.Disii  Akr 


233 


Ostermalm  Technical  High  School  in  Stockholm,  designed  by  Ragnar 
Ostberg 

sion  by  travelling — often  on  a  bicycle — in  almost  every  part 
of  Europe.  While  respecting  tradition  as  well  as  materials, 
he  aims  to  create  houses  in  harmony  with  what  our  time 
and  our  country  have  a  right  to  demand  in  the  way  of  genu- 
ineness and  impressiveness.  Among  the  beautiful  homes 
that  Ostberg  has  built  we  may  note  the  solid  mansion  of 
Dr.  Paull,  at  Djursholm,  constructed  with  dignified  sim- 
plicity of  brick.  He  has  been  exceptionally  happy  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  has  united  and  rebuilt,  to  form  the 
Bonnier  residence,  two  adjoining  houses  in  Djurgarden,  pre- 
serving and  increasing  the  homelike  comfort  of  the  old  struc- 
tures. For  Herr  Thorsten  Laurin  he  has  erected,  also  in 
Djurgarden,  a  silver-grey  wooden  house  with  shingled  walls 
and  roof  covered  with  green-glazed  tiles.  The  house  forms 
a  happy  and  firm  composition  with  the  knoll  upon  which 
it  rests. 

In  the  beautiful  Odd  Fellow  House  in  Nykoping  and  in 
the  Ostermalm  Technical  High  School  in  Stockholm  he  has 


234  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

made  use  of  an  artistic  form  of  undressed  brick  surfaces. 
This  school  building,  completed  in  19 lO,  is  one  of  the  most 
satisfying  examples  of  Swedish  architecture  of  recent  date. 
A  brick  wall,  resting  upon  a  foundation  of  uncut  stones  and 
boulders,  separates  the  school  and  playground  from  the  out- 
side world.  The  reddish-brown  walls  of  the  building  itself 
are  masoned  of  hand-made  Halsingborg  brick  upon  a  gran- 
ite base.  The  curb-roof  is  covered  with  tile.  The  interior, 
with  its  cross-vaulted  passages,  gives  an  impression  of  purity 
and  solemnity,  calling  to  mind  the  fact  that  our  Swedish 
schools  had  their  origin  in  the  medieval  church.  The  main 
staircase  is  sumptuously  adorned  with  noble  works  of  art 
by  Prince  Eugen,  Mllles,  Torneman,  and  Georg  Pauli. 
The  main  auditorium,  in  white  with  panels  of  dark  blue 
Dutch  tiles,  Is  borne  up  by  grooved  granite  columns.  Rag- 
nar  Ostberg  has  drawn  the  plans  that  were  unanimously 
accepted  for  the  Stockholm  Town  Hall.  The  high 
square  tower  is  reflected  In  Malaren  and  proclaims  far  and 
wide  that  here  stands  a  building  which  the  largest  and  most 
beautiful  city  of  the  peninsula  may  proudly  call  Its  own. 

The  architect  Ells  Benckert  has  designed  furniture  with 
unusual  feeling  for  form  and  exceptionally  fine  taste.  Un- 
fortunately his  promising  career  was  broken  off  prematurely 
by  his  death  In  19 13,  but  what  he  did  in  the  furnishing  of  the 
Stockholm  Municipal  Building  has  exercised  a  strong  Influ- 
ence upon  artistic  Swedish  handicraft.  The  architect,  Carl 
Malmsten,  in  a  number  of  excellently  made  pieces  of  furni- 
ture, such  as  cabinets,  writing  tables,  and  secretaries,  has 
discovered  the  happiest  forms,  and  has  effected  a  fusion  of 
old  and  new  most  conspicuous  in  his  exquisitely  artistic 
inlaid  work. 

Lars  Wahlman,  besides  designing  a  number  of  stately 
country  palaces — Hjularod  near  Lund  in  the  medieval 
French  castle  style  and  Tjoloholm  In  Halland  in  the  English 
style — has  made  a  name  for  himself  by  his  exceptionally 
good  solution  of  the  church  building  problem  of  our  time. 
The  Engelbrekt  Church,  completed  In  19 14,  has  an  unusu- 
ally picturesque  location  commanding  a  view  of  northern 


A  SUKVJ<:Y  of  SWEDISH  ART  235 

Stockholm.  Although  the  steps  and  terraces  approaching 
the  buililliig  are  wanting  in  ample  dimensions,  the  exterior 
and,  perhaps  even  more,  the  interior  have  a  certain  richness 
and  a  religious  atmosphere.  The  mighty  vaults  with  their 
pure  lines  and  the  artistic  decorations — mural  paintings  by 
Iljortzberg  in  a  style  suggestive  of  the  Byzantine — make 
this  Stockholm  church  one  of  our  country's  most  successful 
ecclesiastical  structures  of  modern  times. 

Following  the  lines  of  Visby's  city  wall,  Torben  Grut, 
born  in  Vastergotland,  designed  Sweden's  imposing  athletic 
building,  the  Stadium,  where  our  nation  won  its  victories 
at  the  Olympic  Games  in  19 12.  In  the  brick  walls,  at  once 
beautiful  and  severe,  Grut  created  an  excellent  Swedish 
frame  for  this  play  with  Its  under-current  of  seriousness. 
Sigfrld  Ericson  has  made  a  name  in  church  architecture  by 
his  wonderfully  well  placed  and  almost  fortress-like  Mast- 
huggskyrka  (Beacon  Church) — a  stronghold  of  the  spirit 
— which  may  be  seen  far  out  to  sea  upon  approaching  his 
native  city,  Gothenburg. 

Ivar  Tengbom  first  aroused  attention  by  his  Town  Hall 
In  Boras.  But  It  was  in  the  construction  of  the  substantial, 
palatial  home  of  the  Enskllda  Bank  near  Kungstradgarden 
In  Stockholm  that  he  attained  a  rank  of  the  first  order  among 
the  architects  of  our  land.  The  building  harmonizes  in 
architectural  composition  with  a  house  situated  on  the  other 
side  of  Wahrendorffsgatan.  It  is  constructed  of  black 
granite  extending  for  a  considerable  distance  up  the  facade, 
and  finished  off  above  that  with  a  coat  of  light  grey  plaster. 
The  forms  are  somewhat  reminiscent  of  the  neo-antlque. 
The  central  portion  of  the  fagade  Is  adorned  with  columns, 
which  support  symbolic  reliefs,  all  in  black  granite.  Money 
has  been  called  "the  result  of  labor,"  and  this  money  palace 
has  more  of  the  severity  and  seriousness  of  labor  than  of 
the  splendor  of  gold.  The  large  banking  hall  In  dark  and 
light  polished  stone,  limestone  and  marble,  Is  very  Imposing 
In  Its  dimensions  and  in  Its  subdued  but  sumptuous  decora- 
tions. Solidity,  strength,  good  taste,  and  efficiency  are 
characteristics  of  thjs  building,  and  these  are  qualities  we 


236 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Enskilda  Bank  in  Stockholm,  designed  by  Ivar  Tengbom 

desire  both  in  our  economic  and  not  less  in  our  artistic  life. 
During  the  last  decades,  the  conviction  has  gained  ground 
in  a  few  places  in  Europe,  that  style  and  a  more  general 
aesthetic  influence  In  our  communities  can  only  be  attained 
through  good  architecture.  In  the  development  of  the 
home,  the  private  dwelling-house,  both  the  Interior  and  the 


A  suKVia'  oi'  s\vi:i)isii  arv         237 

cxtcrioi",  llici^c  is  no  people  lliat  lias  workeil  more  success- 
fully than  the  I'aij^lish.  When  it  comes  to  municipal  archi- 
tecture and  monumental  buildings,  on  tlie  other  hand,  a 
severe  style  has  perhaps  found  its  most  magnificent  applica- 
tion in  the  new  buildings  of  German  cities.  Denmark,  also, 
has  enjoyed  a  very  sound  architectural  evolution,  in  which 
harmony  and  self-restraint — which  spell  good  taste — ha\e 
been  more  evident  than  in  most  other  places.  Nor  can  it 
be  denied  that  Swedish  architecture — by  virtue  of  gootl 
material,  big  conceptions,  and  a  large  number  of  artists  who 
possess  creative  genius  and  yet  base  their  art  on  national 
traditions — has  had  and  Is  having  a  golden  period.  It  is 
now  one  of  the  best  In  the  world,  and  we  can  only  hope  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  protect  the  relatively  little  of  the  old  that 
we  have  left,  all  the  more  precious  to  us  because  It  is  so  little. 
We  may  hope,  too,  that  while  due  attention  Is  paid  to  the 
practical  and  economic,  the  aesthetic  viewpoint,  which  Is  so 
essential  to  our  Intellectual  welfare,  be  further  encouraged 
and  promoted  by  energetic  architects.  Then  we  shall  per- 
haps attain  a  modern  Swedish  style  with  all  that  this  Implies 
of  national  health  and  stability  of  culture. 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

By 
EMIL    HANNOVER 

Director  of  The  Danish  Museum  of  Industrial  Art 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

Bv  Emil  Hannover 


THE  PERIOD  BEFORE  ECKERSBERG 

DURING  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  period  of  the 
Renaissance,  art  in  little  Denmark,  even  when  prac- 
tised by  Danes,  remained  hardly  more  than  a  feeble 
reflection  of  the  art  of  larger  countries,  or  of  countries 
which  set  the  artistic  standards  of  the  time.  Necessarily,  of 
course,  it  adapted  itself  to  the  humbler  needs  of  Denmark, 
and,  In  special  cases,  developed  distinctive  forms  which 
would  scarcely  be  met  with  outside  of  the  Danish  bounda- 
ries; but  even  as  late  as  the  rococo  period  Denmark  had 
produced  no  art  that  could  be  called  truly  Danish  In  spirit 
and  character. 

Pilo,  who  was  a  Swede  by  birth,  shows  in  his  portraits  a 
purely  French  style.  Als,  who  went  to  Rome  at  a  time  when 
the  antique  was  beginning  to  engage  men's  minds,  belongs  as 
a  portrait  painter  to  the  European  period  of  transition  be- 
tween rococo  and  classicism.  In  the  style  of  Vigillus  Erich- 
sen's  portraits  we  find  still  more  marked  evidence  of  the 
conflicting  currents  which  then  swayed  the  world.  And  as 
for  the  art  of  Abildgaard,  it  is  not  Danish  either;  although 
his  calm  endeavor  to  attain  the  grand  style  gives  his  work 
an  appeal  which  is  lacking  in  Fiissll's  or  Mengs's,  It  was  by 
those  artists,  none  the  less,  that  he  was  most  potently  In- 

241 


242 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


fluenced.  The  greatest  merit  of  his  scholarly  painting  is 
that  it  raised  the  level  of  taste  in  the  representation  of  the 
human  figure.  Even  when  the  mannerism  of  his  drawing, 
the  elongation  of  his  proportions,  is  most  pronounced,  there 
is  a  dignified  bearing  and  a  ceremonious  rhythm  in  his 
figures;  granting  that  his  mannerism  is  a  detriment  to  his 
style,  at  least  it  is  his  own.  He  showed  less  individuality 
in  his  coloring,  which  was  the  result  of  comprehensive  study 
of  the  great  colorists  of  old.     Yet  he  had  a  strong  sense  of 


Ossian,  by  N.  A.  Abildgaard 


DANISH  ARI'   IN    11  ll",  XIX  Cl-INTURY      243 

the  dcconituc  \aliic  of  color,  and  a  natural  gift  for  general 
decorative  effect.  In  his  big  paintings  at  the  Christlansborg 
Palace  in  Copenhagen  his  skilful  use  of  color  is  in  contrast 
to  his  fantastic  notion  of  the  quantity  of  allegorical  inven- 
tion that  a  picture  can  bear.  On  the  whole,  one  may  fairly 
say  that  there  is  more  reason  to  honor  him  for  unusually  high 
purpose  than  for  any  outstanding  natural  talent. 

All  that  nature  withheld  from  Abildgaard — the  freshness, 
the  geniality,  the  true  artistic  temperament,  the  genuine 
professional  talent  and  the  genuine  professional  training — 
all  this  was  united  in  Juel.  He  knew  the  joy  that  comes  to 
the  possessor  of  a  great  natural  gift,  and  although  he  mis- 
used his  gift  during  his  later  years  by  the  wholesale  produc- 
tion of  portraits  which  were  often  empty  and  flat,  even  these 
show  the  enjoyment  he  felt  in  the  exercise  of  his  accurate 
eye  and  his  easy,  delicate  hand.  There  is  something  infec- 
tious in  his  delight  In  his  work,  and  also  In  his  amiability. 
Since  his  time  portrait  painting  has  gained  In  sobriety,  and 
to  the  modern  eye  the  people  In  his  pictures  undoubtedly 
seem  more  festive  than  he  ever  Intended  that  they  should. 
In  his  own  day,  however,  his  portrait  painting  marked  a 
complete  break  from  the  fashion  of  the  preceding  age;  it 
was  a  gigantic  stride  toward  the  close  approach  to  life  as  It 
really  Is,  whereas  the  earlier  period  had  held  Itself  aloof 
and  superior.  In  an  attitude  of  condescension  toward  the 
beholder.  Juel  was  probably  the  first  painter  to  present 
a  distinguished  man  In  his  dressing-gown — In  his  portrait 
of  Bonnet,  the  Genevan  philosopher. 

He  sometimes  became  saccharine  in  his  coloring,  finicky 
In  his  drawing,  all  too  ready  to  make  concessions  to  public 
taste.  Yet  there  Is  a  little  series  of  portrait  sketches  which 
shows  that  he  might  have  become  a  pioneer  In  coloring,  too. 
Unfortunately,  the  mastery,  the  freedom  from  conven- 
tionality, the  strongly  progressive  trend,  which  these 
sketches  display,  did  not  develop  In  Juel's  portrait  painting. 
He  had  to  take  to  an  entirely  different  field,  to  landscape, 
before  he  could  let  himself  go  and  satisfy  the  longing  for 
fresh  air  which  his  mind  was  cleanly  enough  to  feel,  even 


244 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


though  it  seemed  that  his  proper  element  was  the  close 
atmosphere  of  the  drawing-room.  We  may  well  believe 
that  he  was  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  Rousseau,  for  he  had 
lived  for  some  years  in  Rousseau's  city  and  in  the  house  of 
one  of  Rousseau's  disciples.  However  that  may  be,  his 
attitude  toward  nature  was  essentially  Rousseau's.  He  was 
most  strongly  moved  by  the  vast  and  phenomenal  aspects  of 
nature.    He  rarely  made  any  deep  study  of  single  landscape 


Portrait  of  the  Philosopher  Bonnet,  by  Jens  Juel 


DANISM     \kl'   IN    11  ll',   XIX    Ci'.NIl'kV      245 


Farmhouse  in  a  Gathering  Storm,  by  Jens  Juel 

motifs,  but  he  was  sensitive  to  the  moods  of  nature,  and  he 
felt  the  spirit  of  Danish  landscape  earlier  and  more  acutely 
than  any  of  his  contemporaries. 

In  other  and  broader  conditions,  a  man  of  such  capacity, 
one  of  the  most  talented  Danish  artists  that  has  ever  lived, 
would  undoubtedly  have  developed  along  different  lines, 
and  might  have  become  a  painter  of  European  importance. 
Carstens  (not  to  mention  Thorvaldsen) ,  has  shown  us  how 
the  power  of  native  Danish  genius  may  expand  in  a  climate 
more  favorable  to  art  than  that  of  Denmark.  Unfortu- 
nately Carstens  turned  away  from  Denmark  as  he  devel- 
oped, and  his  significance  in  relation  to  his  native  country  is 
limited  to  his  significance  in  relation  to  Thorvaldsen. 

If  the  other  Danish  painters  who  preceded  Eckersberg 
may  claim  an  Introduction  to  the  public  outside  Denmark, 
it  can  be  only  perfunctory.  Both  the  portraits  and  the  land- 
scapes of  Erik  Pauelsen,  painted  In  a  style  common  to  all 
Europe,  point  backward  rather  than  forward.  As  a  typical 
example  of  all  that  was  required  to  fulfill  the  modest  de- 
mands on  art  of  eighteenth  century  Denmark,  we  have 
Lorentzen,  with  his  views  from  all  corners  of  the  world,  his 


246  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

pictures  on  subjects  from  the  history  of  the  North,  and  his 
portraits.  Only  a  few  of  the  later  ones  show  any  tendency 
toward  more  thorough  characterization;  these  few  are,  in 
a  way,  Eckersberg  before  Eckersberg;  they  are  more  nearly 
in  his  spirit  than  the  portraits  painted  by  Hornemann — 
quite  as  able  an  artist — in  his  latest  years  under  the  direct 
influence  of  the  torch-bearer  of  Danish  art. 

On  the  rest  of  the  older  men  who  lived  on  into  his  time, 
Eckersberg  made  little  if  any  impression.  There  is  a  slight 
trace  in  the  work  from  the  1820's  of  Hans  Hansen,  a  pupil 
or  imitator  of  Juel's,  of  little  ability.  As  an  historical 
painter,  Kratzenstein-Stub  formed  his  style  after  Thorvald- 
sen's;  as  a  portrait  painter,  more  or  less  after  Gerard's. 
Fritzsch,  the  painter  of  flowers,  got  his  style,  his  effective 
composition,  and  the  free  swing  of  his  brush  from  Monnoyer 
and  other  seventeenth  century  French  or  Dutch  flower  spe- 
cialists. Gebauer,  likewise,  had  studied  the  galleries  more 
diligently  than  nature.  He  by  no  means  lacked  delicate 
and  romantic  feeling  for  the  animals  and  the  landscapes  he 
painted,  but  he  did  lack  the  courage  to  depend  on  his  own 
impressions.  In  composition  and  in  coloring  he  followed 
his  Dutchmen  to  the  end. 

The  art  of  the  outgoing  period  thus  persisted,  to  some 
extent,  into  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  Den- 
mark. The  majority  of  its  devotees,  however,  wore  out 
their  moribund  existence  in  the  shadow,  taking  no  place  in 
the  light  of  truth  which  Eckersberg's  art  spread  abroad  like 
the  brightness  of  day;  in  this  light  the  seedlings  of  future 
Danish  art  were  sprouting  and  growing  green  in  abundance. 


II 

ECKERSBERG 

BORN  in  1783  at  Blaakrog  In  Slesvig  in  poor  circum- 
stances, Eckersberg  was  a  needy  student  at  the  Acad- 
emy of  Art  in  Copenhagen,  until  he  started  out  in 
1 8 10  on  his  journey  to  Paris  and  Rome.  He  remained 
abroad  until  18 16,  and  experienced  a  complete  transforma- 
tion of  his  ideas,  in  the  course  of  which  his  artistic  person- 
ality finally  emerged  in  crystalline  clarity. 

Despite  a  superficial  sympathy  for  the  classicism  of  his 
time,  with  which  he  came  in  close  contact  first  while  a  pupil 
of  David  In  Paris  and  later  when  he  was  In  friendly  asso- 
ciation with  Thorvaldsen  In  Rome,  his  character  as  an  artist 
formed  itself  round  his  faculty  for  the  reproduction  of 
external  nature,  which  he  owed  to  his  extraordinary  eyes. 
The  first  distinct  expression  of  this  gift  Is  In  his  Views  of 
Rome.  The  secret  of  these  studies  Is  that  there  Is  nothing 
secret  In  them.  Eckersberg  painted  just  what  he  saw,  but 
now  for  the  first  time  he  saw  entirely  with  his  own  eyes,  and 
his  own  eyes  were  marvellously  perfect  organs.  It  was  as 
If  nature  had  fitted  them  with  something  that  worked  like 
a  telescope,  giving  them  longer  range  than  ordinary  eyes. 
He  could  see  distant  objects  as  clearly  and  sharply  as  those 
that  were  near,  and  he  observed  so  accurately  that  one  would 
think  he  must  have  used  some  optical  Instrument  Instead  of 
mere  unassisted  human  vision.  Eckersberg's  sound  con- 
stitution partly  explains  the  phenomenon.  Entirely  devoid 
of  nervousness,  he  received  all  impressions  calmly  and  Im- 
perturbably;  nothing  could  give  him  a  shock,  nothing  could 
influence  him  or  color  what  he  saw  or  obscure  It  or  warp  It 

247 


248 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


View  at  Villa  Borghese,  by  C.  V.  Eckersberg 


to  fit  some  subjective  Interpretation  rather  than  the  objective 
reahty. 

This  fixity  of  vision  was  so  intense  that  it  amounted  almost 
to  genius.  Yet  Eckersberg  did  not  really  attain  genius.  He 
lacked  the  ability  to  let  the  visible  reality  rise  up  phoenix- 
like from  his  work  in  a  more  beautiful  form.  Only  once  in 
his  life  did  he  have  a  real  inspiration:  when  he  painted  his 
three-quarter-length  portrait  of  Thorvaldsen.  On  this  one 
occasion  a  higher  power  came  to  his  assistance,  unknown  to 
him.     The  observer,  for  once,  became  something  of  a  seer. 

He  did  not  again  rise  above  himself  like  this.  It  was  the 
homely  virtues,  amiability,  righteousness,  diligence,  and 
sense  of  duty,  which  throve  best  in  the  quiet  atmosphere  of 
his  sitting-room.  To  his  brush  nothing  was  insignificant. 
For  fear  of  missing  something,  he  avoided  half-lights  and 
chiaroscuro.  Only  in  the  clear,  sober  light  of  day  could 
Eckersberg  satisfy  his  keenest  passion  as  an  artist,  the  desire 
for  study,  or,  as  he  called  it  himself,  for  "research." 


i 


DANISI  I     \K  I     l\'     II  IP:   XIX    CI'N  ri'RV 


■V.) 


Portrait  of  Thorvaldsen,  by  Eckersberg 

It  was  not  the  heart  and  reins  that  he  searched  as  a  por- 
trait painter,  but  everything  that  he  could  actually  see  with 
his  eyes.  If  one  remembers  that  the  Danes  have  always 
been  known  for  their  homely  simplicity,  that  their  simplicity 
has  never  been  more  homely  than  at  the  period  when  Eckers- 
berg drew,  and  that  no  people  have  ever  been  drawn  by  an 
artist  who  had  more  of  the  virtues  of  this  same  homely 
simplicity  than  Eckersberg  himself,  one  will  appreciate  how 
typically,  intensely,  the  Danish  character  Is  brought  out  in 


250 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Natlianson  Family,  by  Eckersberg 


his  portraits.  That  is  one  of  the  discoveries  to  which  he  was 
led  unconsciously — one  might  almost  say  blindly  if  it  were 
not  particularly  due  to  his  eyes — by  his  constant  insistence 
on  going  to  the  bottom  in  his  search  for  truth.  It  goes  with- 
out saying  that  this  discovery  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  which 
the  history  of  Danish  art  can  boast. 

This  fresh,  primal  point  of  view,  which  is  what  produces 
in  the  earlier  stages  of  an  art  the  pioneers  who  give  direc- 
tion to  subsequent  tendencies,  led  him  to  other  discoveries 
besides  this  of  the  Danish  Type.  He  is  also  the  discoverer 
of  Danish  country  and  of  the  Danish  sea. 

His  passion  for  the  sea  began  as  a  passion  for  ships.  He 
was  interested  In  mechanics  and  construction,  and  in  ship- 
ping he  found  a  wide  field  for  this  interest.  His  first  ma- 
rines, accordingly,  are  rather  pictures  of  ships  than  of  the 
sea.  With  complete  familiarity  his  brush  hovered  about 
the  full-rigged  masts,  flitted  in  a  delighted  rope-dance  along 
hundreds  of  stays  and  halyards  and  ratlines,  all  drawn  with- 
out the  faintest  tremor  of  the  hand.  Soon  the  sea  became 
as  Interesting  to  him  as  the  ships.     He  found  In  it  a  wholly 


DANISH   ART   IN  Till:  XIX  C1:N  lURY     251 


Portrait  of  Madame  Schmidt,  by  Eckersberg 

new  subject  for  that  "research"  with  which  his  art  was  be- 
coming more  and  more  identical,  and  he  acquired  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  it  in  a  scientific  way.  It  is  obvious  that  there 
can  be  no  great  spontaneity  to  pictures  that  have  required 
in  advance  an  extraordinary  amount  of  deliberation,  that 


252 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  Froken  Marsmann,  by  Eckersberg 


conceal  under  their  paint  a  network  of  structural  lines. 
Not  until  old  age  had  impaired  his  sight — probably  because 
of  his  constant  use  of  a  telescope — did  he  go  through  a  brief 
phase,  when  his  eyes  were  reduced  to  M^hat  might  be  called 
normal  vision,  in  which  he  painted  a  little  series  of  marines 
of  a  more  pictorial  character.  All  the  energy  that  he  had 
formerly  devoted  to  detail  was  in  these  works  concentrated 
on  the  reproduction  of  the  general  effect  which  he  saw  with 
his  once  analytical  eyes.  It  seems  as  if  he  had  had  to  scale 
his  over-acute  sight  down  to  normal  before  he  could  focus 
on  the  great  striking  truth  of  nature  which  he  had  long 
sought  but  never  quite  attained:  the  color  of  the  Danish 


I3AN1SH  ART   IN   TUJ-:  XIX   C1':N  I'URV     253 


A  Privateer  Chasing  a  Frigate,  by  Eckersberg 

seas  when  the  Danish  sounds  grow  blue  under  a  summer 
sky  and  the  summer  sun  flashes  on  the  white  sails  that  en- 
circle the  green  islands  of  Denmark. 

He  made  his  discoveries  on  land  more  quickly,  more 
easily,  and  more  incidentally.  When  he  took  it  into  his  head, 
on  a  fine  September  day,  to  have  a  look  at  the  green  trees 
of  the  Dyrehaven  beechwoods  before  the  coming  of  autumn, 
or  when  his  pupils  induced  him  to  go  with  them  on  one  of 
their  excursions,  he  would  inevitably  make  use  of  the  occa- 
sion to  do  a  little  color-sketch.  What  he  brought  back  in 
his  thumb-box  was  only  a  trifle  in  comparison  to  the  wealth 
of  remembered  detail  that  he  poured  out  on  his  sketch 
when  he  got  it  home  and  worked  it  up  on  canvas.  He  was  at 
times  too  lavish  in  his  sheer  exuberant  delight  in  the  small 
things  of  nature,  hitherto  neglected  in  Danish  landscape 
painting.  It  is  easy  to  see  in  his  finished  landscapes  that 
they  were  not  completed  in  the  open.  They  are  products 
of  the  heart,  and  of  the  studio.  Such  treatment,  however, 
was  not  unsuitable  to  the  happy,  idyllic  aspect  of  Danish 
country  which  he  preferred  to  paint.     Entirely  untrained, 


254 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Renbjerg  Brickyard,  by  Eckersberg 

self-taught  as  a  landscape  painter,  unaffected  by  rules  and 
methods,  with  his  hitherto  unused  and  therefore  fresh  per- 
ception of  nature  and  his  love  for  his  native  land,  he  could 
penetrate  further  Into  Danish  nature  than  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors. He  was  the  first  to  strike  with  sure,  firm  touch  the 
dominant  color  chord  In  the  harmony  of  Danish  landscape. 

These  discoveries  of  his,  the  unchanging  characteristics 
of  the  Danish  people  and  the  physiognomy  of  Danish  land 
and  Danish  sea,  were  far  greater  contributions  than  any- 
thing In  the  big  historical  paintings  and  altar-pieces  which 
he  himself  regarded  as  his  highest  achievements.  His  art 
was  all  prose,  but  It  was  great  prose.  His  form  Is  beautiful 
because  It  Is  natural;  It  Is  natural  because  It  Is  the  most  accu- 
rate and  Immediate  expression  of  his  spirit.  The  consistency 
between  the  spirit  and  the  form  of  his  art  bespeaks  the 
undeviating  truthfulness  which  Is  the  essence  of  his  character. 

On  this  same  Inherent  truthfulness,  as  on  an  Imperishable 
foundation,  stands  the  school  which  Eckersberg  established. 


Ill 

ECKERSBERG'S  SCHOOL 

THERE  were  three  men  virtually  contemporary  with 
Eckersberg  of  whom  one  took  his  place  in  the  evo- 
lution of  Danish  art  very  late,  another  never  took  any 
place  at  all,  while  the  third  attained  a  very  prominent  posi- 
tion apart  from  the  general  trend.  The  first  of  the  three 
was  I.  P.  Moller,  a  landscape  painter,  who  in  his  old  age, 
under  the  influence  of  younger  landscape  painters,  attained 
a  better  understanding  of  Danish  nature,  and  somewhat 
outgrew  his  earlier  artificial  manner.  The  second  was  I.  L. 
Lund,  who  a  few  years  before  Eckersberg,  had  likewise 
worked  under  David,  but  had  not  been  so  fortunate  in  seiz- 
ing and  fostering  the  realistic  spirit  of  David's  teaching.  He 
became  professor  at  the  Academy  of  Art,  but  did  not  offer 
any  such  attraction  to  the  rising  generation  of  painters  as 
Eckersberg,  who  became  professor  at  the  same  time.  A  bet- 
ter example  for  the  young  was  the  third  of  these  artists, 
C.  A.  Jensen,  His  special  gift  was  insight  swift  as  lightning, 
happily  combined  with  a  dazzlingly  clever  technique.  These 
two  characteristics  gave  him  exceptional  qualification  as  a 
portrait  painter,  but  they  also  brought  him  more  popularity 
than  was  altogether  good  for  him.  His  profundity  had 
never  been  great,  and  as  the  years  went  on  his  portraits 
became  mere  rapid  sketches.  Yet  in  these  swift  sketches 
his  insight  is  so  sure  and  his  drawing  so  brilliant  that  he 
often  reminds  us  of  no  less  a  personage  than  Frans  Hals. 

The  inevitable  reflection  of  such  a  shining  phenomenon 
In  the  skies  of  Danish  art  may  be  seen  here  and  there  in  the 
painting  of  the  younger  men — frequently  in  Kobke,   occa- 

255 


256 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


sionally  in  Marstrand  and  Roed.  But  these  are  only  transi- 
tory gleams  compared  with  the  steady  and  constant  light 
that  radiates  from  Eckersberg's  work  upon  the  great  circle 
of  his  pupils. 

It  was   in  the  late  twenties   and  the   early  thirties   that 

Eckersberg's  school 
reached  its  fullest 
bloom.  His  best 
pupils  at  that  time 
were  Rorbye,  Roed, 
Bendz,  Kobke,  Petz- 
holdt,  Adam  Miil- 
ler,  Kiichler,  Con- 
stantin  Hansen, 
Eddelien,  and  Mar- 
strand.  For  all 
these  men  the  day 
that  they  entered 
the  master's  atelier 
was  of  far-reaching 
significance.  They 
learned  there  that 
the  first  rule  of 
painting  is  inviola- 
ble truthfulness  in 
the  representation 
of  a  subject.  They 
learned,  further,  that  this  depends  not  on  what  is  represented, 
but  on  how  it  is  represented.  They  also  learned,  in  this 
connection,  the  value  of  loving  study  of  the  smallest  details 
of  nature.  Lastly,  they  learned  that  only  what  lies  near  at 
hand  lies  near  enough  to  the  heart  to  be  loved  and  to  be 
painted. 

Naturally  they  had  already  in  their  youth  tendencies 
toward  the  individual  differences  which  later  became  evident 
in  their  work,  but  their  pictures  have  far  less  the  stamp  of 
individuality  than  of  the  period  and  the  school.  It  is,  per- 
haps, the  glimpses  of  individuality,  naively  revealed  with  the 


Portrait  of  the  Scene  Painter  Troels  Lund, 
by  C.  A.  Jensen 


DANISH  ARV  IN  riii<:  xix  ci':NriJkv    257 

shy  and  dcllcalc  <;i-atc  ol  uncoiiscloiisiicss,  wliith  ^i\c  to  the 
paintings  procluccd  hy  ]'",ckcrsh erg's  i)upils  in  the  thirties  tiicir 
greatest  charm. 

Among  their  pictures  from  this  period  portraits  are  the 
most  numerous  and  perhaps  the  best.  In  these  the  sense  of 
form  is  penetrating,  the  drawing  delicate,  the  coloring  fresh, 
the  brushwork  meticulous,  the  interpretation  of  character 
serious,  direct,  sincere,  simple,  wholesome,  and  clean.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  their  genre  paintings,  mostly  scenes 
from  the  streets  and  houses  of  Copenhagen  (rarely,  how- 
ever, from  peasant  life,  which  was  left  to  a  later  generation) , 
full  of  homeliness  and  warmth,  seldom  with  any  significance 
— the  pictorial  was  always  the  most  important  considera- 
tion— invariably  presented  in  a  quiet  and  unaffected  man- 
ner, with  no  suggestion  of  straining  after  effect.  How  easily 
these  young  painters  managed  to  be  genuine  and  natural ! 
All  the  forces  that  co-operate  in  the  production  of  a  work  of 
art  were  then  in  a  state  of  young  and  blameless  innocence. 
Even  nature  was  still  almost  untouched  in  Denmark,  and 
consequently  seemed  more  virginal  than  it  does  to-day,  now 


The  Finck  Coffee-house  at  Munich,  by  Vilhelm  Bend2 


258  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

that  its  beauty  has  been  so  often  unveiled,  and  so  often  pro- 
faned, In  our  paintings.  The  little  landscapes  that  we  owe 
to  this  school  therefore  have  an  effect  on  one's  mind  like  that 
of  morning  and  dew  on  one's  senses.  Their  spirit  Is  so 
ethereal  that  one  cannot  conceive  of  It  except  as  pertaining  to 
just  such  an  era  of  dawn  as  that  from  which  they  sprang. 

In  every  field  these  young  eyes  now  discovered  new  pic- 
torial beauties,  and  they  were  often  more  fastidious  In  such 
matters  than  the  less  experienced  Eckersberg  had  been  at 
their  age.  The  observers  of  color  were  Bendz  and  Kobke. 
Bendz,  who  unfortunately  died  very  young,  did  not  leave 
much  work,  but  what  he  left  Is  of  the  highest  artistic 
quality.  The  greatest  difference  between  him  and  Eckers- 
berg was  that  he  had  a  stronger  sense  of  the  effect  of  atmos- 
phere In  color  than  he  had  of  color  Itself.  In  his  work, 
where,  significantly  enough,  we  find  the  first  attempt  In  Dan- 
ish art  to  present  scenes  with  artificial  lighting,  the  most 
Important  characteristic  Is  the  delicate  perception  of  pictorial 
effect.  That  does  not  imply  that  the  characterization  In  his 
portraits  Is  inadequate,  or  that  there  was  anything  lukewarm 
In  his  feeling  for  life  when  he  painted  everyday  scenes.  Still, 
If  one  were  seeking  the  point  at  which  he  comes  In  closest 
contact  with  the  world  about  him,  one  might  find  it  in  his 
eye  rather  than  In  his  heart. 

Kobke  is  richer  and  warmer;  his  feeling  for  the  things 
about  him  was  at  least  as  much  in  his  heart  as  in  his  eye.  He 
possessed  the  gift,  so  priceless  to  an  artist,  of  a  heart  of  gold, 
and  It  was  In  one  of  the  most  Inestimable  feelings  of  the 
heart  of  a  man  of  the  people,  in  the  love  of  home  and 
all  that  belongs  to  It,  that  his  art  had  Its  deepest  root.  To 
him,  the  family  at  home,  the  kinsmen  and  the  friends  who 
cross  the  threshold,  are  half  the  world;  the  other  half  is 
the  Idyllic  surroundings  of  his  home.  Among  his  most  beau- 
tiful paintings  are  pictures  of  his  parents,  his  relatives,  and 
his  friends,  painted  with  the  most  complete  sympathy.  Even 
the  strangers  whom  he  might  occasionally  paint  to  order 
look  as  if  they  had  been  his  nearest  and  dearest  kin.  He 
could  understand  Intimately  without  feeling  intimately.    The 


DANISH   ART   IN   Till':   XIX   CI:N  lUkY     250 


Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Mother,  by  Christen  Kobke 

great  difference  between  Kobke  and  Eckersberg  as  portrait 
painters  is  that  while  the  latter,  always  alert  but  never  vary- 
ing in  his  capacity  from  day  to  day,  went  on  with  his  "re- 
search" into  a  character  trait  by  trait,  Kobke  had  moments 
of  higher  intelligence  in  which  the  character  in  its  entirety 
flashed  into  his  consciousness.  In  this  respect  he  rather  re- 
sembled C.  A.  Jensen,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  his 
execution  he  followed  Jensen  rather  than  Eckersberg. 
Kobke  was  the  first  Dane  who  succeeded  in  applying  to 
landscape  the  brilliant  technique  at  the  service  of  brilliant 
insight,  which  he  had  learned  from  C.  A.  Jensen  but  had 
developed  to  full  independence.  It  was  this  that  enabled 
him  to  transfer  his  impressions  of  nature  in  all  their  fresh- 
ness to  the  canvases  which  are  the  first,  and  perhaps  to  this 
day  the  finest,  of  Danish  open-air  paintings.   In  his  landscapes 


260 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


At  Soitedamsso,  by  Christen  Kobke 

even  more  than  in  his  portraits  he  confined  himself  within 
narrow  Hmits.  So  close  did  he  circumscribe  his  limits  that 
he  could  hardly  have  drawn  them  closer  and  still  have  left 
room  for  anything  that  could  really  be  called  landscape.  He 
sought  his  subjects  in  the  restricted  region  where  the  coun- 
try meets  the  city  and  surrounds  scattered,  outlying  strag- 
glers from  the  battalions  of  red  roofs  with  the  green  circle 
of  its  gardens  and  fields.  No  romantic  excursion  lured  him 
from  these  precincts,  where  he  felt  himself  completely  at 
home.  If  more  homely  in  his  choice  of  subjects  than  Eckers- 
berg,  he  was,  on  the  other  hand,  more  purely  artistic  in  his 
treatment  of  them.  "From  the  study  of  shadow  and  the 
theory  of  linear  perspective  a  man  advances  to  color  and 
air-tones"  Eckersberg  once  said  to  his  pupils.  Kobke  had 
followed  no  such  course;  he  was  a  born  painter,  especially 
sensitive  to  the  delicacy  and  beauty  of  color  as  affected  by 
light  and  atmosphere.  He  is  the  discoverer  in  Danish  land- 
scape painting  of  what  are  now  called  "values,"  the  relative 
intensity  of  color-tones;  he  is  the  earliest  master  in  this  de- 
partment, and  is  still  perhaps  the  greatest. 

While  Bendz  and  Kobke  in  Eckersberg's  school  devoted 
themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  color,  it  came  more  natur- 
ally to  Rorbye  and  Roed  to  develop  drawing  and  form.  Both 


DANISM    \\<\    IN    INI',   \IX   (I'A'rUKV     261 

tiicJ  their  li;iiuls  at  almost  c\  crytliiiifj;  in  their  youth,  as  was 
the  eiistom  of  the  sehool,  hut  the  eomplete  laek  of  poetie 
faeulty  c\entually  foreecl  them  into  the  Held  in  whieh  this 
limitation  least  hampered  them.  Apart  from  this  limitation, 
their  strongest  common  characteristics  were,  at  first,  an  ex- 
traordinary dexterity  and  absolute  truthfulness.  Rocd  main- 
tained these  to  the  end  of  his  days,  hut  Rorbye  lost  some- 
thing ol    his  thoroughness  dui'ing  his  years  of  rambling  in 


Portrait  of  the  Artist  Lorentzen,  by  Martinus  Rorbye 


262 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Mother,  by  Jorgen  Rocd 

the  South  and  in  the  Orient,  which  naturally  widened  the 
range  of  his  subjects.  Roed,  as  has  been  implied,  remained 
more  consistent  throughout  his  life,  which  was  much  longer 
than  Rorbye's,  but  he  too  painted  his  best  pictures  as  a  young 
man,  and  proved  himself  incapable  of  growth.  In  all  the 
long  course  of  his  later  work  we  find  nothing  with  as  much 
feeling  as  his  early  portraits  and  nothing  so  attractive  as 
the  naive  charm,  the  appearance  of  actuality,  and  the  faith- 
fulness of  rendering  of  his  genre  paintings  and  street  scenes 
from  the  period  before  his  travels,  or  of  the  architectual 
studies  from  his  sojourn  in  Italy.  The  talent  as  a  draughts- 
man with  which  he  was  to  the  last  so  richly  endowed  made 
him  the  most  trustworthy  portrait  painter  of  the  period. 
His  many  large  Biblical  paintings,  on  the  other  hand,  testify 
rather  to  his  taste  and  his  fine  intelligence  than  to  a  capacity 
proportionate  to  his  subjects. 


DANISH  Akr  IN    Till':  XiX   CI-:N'IURY     263 


•:\i|^VJf 

^ 

m 

"  Mr'    '^'fflHI^^^^^I 

44;-,o\\.:  ::..,^-^:c'^ -^^'ts 

%^^ft*^**^^ 

^'  ' 

..  .^^-.^^.^.^.... '^^M 

^ 

Portrait  of  Fru  Wanscher,  by  Constantin  Hansen 


All  that  he  acquired  in  Italy  was  improved  taste.  One 
might  well  say  that  of  all  Eckersberg's  pupils  he  was  the 
least  affected  by  Italy;  even  as  an  old  man  he  persevered  in 
the  traditions  of  the  school  without  the  slightest  alteration. 
Equally  faithful  to  tradition  were  Holbech,  Aumont,  Baer- 
entzen,  and  Hunaeus,  painters  chiefly  of  portraits,  who  for 
the  most  part  stayed  at  home,  and  never  succeeded  in  get- 
ting to  Rome.  It  was  at  Rome  that  the  best  of  Eckersberg's 
pupils  were  gathered  in  the  later  thirties,  and  it  was  there 
that  the  break  from  the  school  occurred.  How  this  breach 
was  made  in  each  case  may  be  learned  from  what  follows. 
Here  we  need  only  point  out  that  the  break,  for  some  of 
those  concerned,  was  already  prepared  at  home,  owing  to 
the  influence  of  the  sculptor  Freund,  whose  sense  of  style 
and  broader  outlook  on  art  off^ered  a  pleasing  contrast  to 


264 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


An  Elocutionist  on  the  Mole  in  Naples,  by  Constantin  Hansen 


Eckersberg's  somewhat  shortsighted  naturalism ;  he  had  an 
especially  strong  effect  on  Kobke  and  his  friend  Constantin 
Hansen. 

Hansen  was,  besides,  constitutionally  disposed  to  a  breach 
with  tradition  at  home.  Though  he  shared  the  school's 
strong  sense  of  truth,  he  early  acquired  a  sense  of  plastic 
form,  and  also  a  strong  feeling  for  the  antique.  He  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Eckersberg  to  the  extent  of  devoting 
himself  faithfully  to  the  study  of  architecture  and  landscape 
during  his  stay  in  Italy.  He  departed  from  his  master,  how- 
ever, by  treating  these  subjects  with  more  intelligence  and 
brilliance  and  a  keener  eye  for  color  than  Eckersberg  ever 
possessed.  Soon  his  interest  in  the  picturesque  was  forced 
into  the  background  by  his  increasing  plastic  sense  and  his 
awakened  feeling  for  style.  He  had  been  roused  partly  by 
the  antique  paintings  in  Naples  and  partly  by  the  beautiful 
race  of  mankind  which  he  saw  about  him.  The  result  was 
that  there  appeared  in  his  work  a  fresh  and  living  style,  not 
a  mere  empty  formalism.     His  chief  work  is  the  fresco  dec- 


DANISH  Aki  IN  nil':  xix  ei;N  riiRv 


2(6 


Fresco  Decoration  in  the  Vestibule  of  the  University  of  Copenhagen, 
by  Constantin  Hansen 


oration  of  the  vestibule  of  the  University,  which  he  under- 
took after  his  return  home  in  collaboration  with  Hilker. 
Here  his  art  rises  far  above  the  usual  Danish  level.  With  a 
profound  understanding  both  of  the  methods  of  ancient  art 
and  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Greek  myths,  he  produced  a 
cycle  of  paintings  which  in  the  purity  and  power  of  their 
style  are  scarcely  equalled  by  any  work  of  similar  character 
in  modern  times.  The  period,  however,  was  not  favorable 
to  a  protracted  sojourn  among  the  gods  of  Greece.  He  was 
caught  in  the  prevalent  trend  of  thought,  and  under  the 
influence  of  "Scandinavianism,"  of  Hoyen  and  Grundtvig, 
he  devoted  himself  to  subjects  from  Norse  mythology,  just 
at  the  moment  when  his  art  was  beginning  to  show  its  char- 
acteristic simplicity  and  individuality,  but  unfortunately  also 
its  deficiency  in  certain  respects,  notably  in  color  and  in  imag- 


266 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


JEgh's  Feast,  by  Constantin  Hansen 


inatlon.  His  portrait  painting  was  affected  by  his  other 
activities,  both  to  its  advantage  and  to  its  disadvantage. 
There  is  an  almost  complete  lack  of  pictorial  charm  in  his 
portraits,  which  are  uniformly  brown,  and  wooden  or 
leathery;  but  what  they  lose  in  this  respect  they  gain  in  plas- 
tic and  monumental  effect.  The  great  picture  of  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly  which  Constantin  Hansen,  who  aged 
early,  painted  with  what  was  left  of  his  youthful  strength,  is 
clearly,  despite  many  obvious  defects,  the  work  of  a  painter 
who  understands  better  than  most  sculptors  the  requisites 
of  monumental  art.  In  his  later  years  he  painted  more 
naturalistic,  intimate  pictures  of  his  home,  but  even  in  these 
the  composition  retains,  by  means  of  a  slight  deviation 
from  truth  of  line,  something  of  the  beauty  of  line  and  the 
style  which  were  what  this  artist  had  acquired  in  Italy. 

There  were  still  others  to  whom  Italy  taught  devotion  to 
beauty,  but  it  was  to  beauty  in  different  and  less  significant 
manifestations.  To  Petzholdt,  a  landscape  painter  of  re- 
markable talent,  the  Southern  journey  gave  only  a  new  and 
more  luminous  palette,  but  as  he  died  young  it  may  be  that 
he  had  not  had  time  to  complete  his  development.    To  Kiich- 


DANISH  ART  IN    illE  XTX  CENTURY      267 

Icr  the  journey  supplied  gay  subjects  from  the  cheerful  life 
of  the  Italian  people,  until  he  was  converted  to  Catholicism 
and,  under  the  influence  of  the  German  Nazarenes,  took  to 
painting  thin,  bloodless,  religious  pictures  of  ideal  subjects. 
He  became  a  monk,  entered  a  cloister,  and  was  thus  lost  to 
Danish  art.  A  more  lamentable  loss  was  that  of  Adam 
Muller,  whose  career  came  to  an  end  in  Italy  when  he  was 
barely  thirty-three.  He  was  the  only  one  of  Eckersberg's 
pupils  who  might  be  called  ethereal,  and  was  perhaps  pre- 
disposed to  artistic  anaemia  and  impotence,  for  In  his  earliest 
work  his  soulfulness  already  seemed  rather  morbidly  languid 
and  listless.  This,  however.  Is  vital  and  personal  painting 
compared  with  the  dispirited,  characterless  work  that  he 
produced  In  Italy  after  his  lungs  had  become  affected — faint 
echoes  of  Perugino  and  the  earlier  style  of  Raphael.  Edde- 
llen,  like  Adam  Muller,  lost  his  health  In  Italy,  but  he  In- 
creased his  artistic  powers  by  his  study  of  the  Renaissance, 
which  later  stood  him  In  good  stead  when  he  executed  his 
best  work,  the  celling  of  Christian  IV's  chapel  at  Roskilde. 
Even  If  residence  In  Italy  had,  as  we  have  seen,  different 
effects  on  Eckersberg's  different  pupils,  the  general  Influence 
on  the  tendencies  of  Danish  art  was  the  same.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent  this  Influence  Is  due  to  the  contemporaneous 
German  attitude  toward  Italian  art.  Not  only  while  Thor- 
valdsen  was  living  in  Rome,  but  for  several  years  after  his 
return  home,  Danish  artists  continued  to  profit  by  the  repu- 
tation that  his  great  name  had  made  for  their  country.  They 
associated  themselves  with  the  Germans,  learned  their  lan- 
guage, and  eagerly  took  part  In  the  gay  artists'  life  of  the 
cafes.  One  of  the  leaders  In  this  Intercourse  was  Ernst 
Meyer.  He  was  born  in  Altona,  and  spoke  Danish  Imper- 
fectly; nor  was  the  language  he  spoke  with  his  brush  gen- 
uinely Danish.  He  had  hardly  any  of  the  peculiarities  of 
Eckersberg's  school;  the  mere  fact  that  he  abandoned  his 
own  country  for  practically  the  whole  of  his  life  was  an 
Incongruity  In  a  school  which  had  as  Its  firmest  foundation 
a  strong  feeling  for  home.  But  the  scenes  from  the  life  of 
the  Italian  people  which  he  sent  back  to  the  exhibitions  In 


268 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Roman  Boy  Brought  to  the  Convent,  by  Ernst  Meyer 


Copenhagen  none  the  less  roused  great  admiration,  and 
seemed  to  the  younger  Danish  painters  to  set  forth  all  the 
charms  of  Italy.  They  had  a  seductive  beauty,  an  alluring 
playfulness,  and  a  tinge  of  sentimentality,  which  were  not 
unwelcome  at  that  period.  It  was  from  these  pictures  that 
young  men  got  their  first  conception  of  Italy,  and  when  they 
later  went  there  to  paint,  they  chose  subjects  similar  to  his, 
and  were  predisposed  by  him  in  their  interpretation.  The 
rest — technique — they  learned  from  the  pure  Germans. 
They  learned  from  them  to  generalize  nature  so  as  to  con- 
form with  the  conventional  conception  of  beauty.  They 
also  learned  from  the  Germans  to  spare  themselves  labor 
by  any  convenient  device.  The  Germans,  for  instance,  taught 
them  to  paint  from  costumes  instead  of  from  living  models, 
and  to  paint  over  a  framework  of  outlines,  drawn  on  the 
canvas,  with  the  aid  of  color  formulse.     Their  naturalism 


DANISH   ART   IN   Till':   XIX   CIlN'rilRV     269 

thus  hecainc  alHictcd  witii  a  hall-licartccliicss  Irom  which 
they  found  it  \cry  hard  to  rcco\cr.  Of  those  already  men- 
tioned, Hoed  was  the  only  one  who  really  did  recover.  Of 
those  not  previously  discussed,  there  was  one  who  never 
recovered — Sonne — hut  he  properly  helonjijs  in  a  later  cate- 
gory; and,  strictly  speaking,  another — Marstrand — who  Is 
separately  considered  in  the  next  chapter. 


IV 
MARSTRAND 

WHEN  Marstrand  was  very  young,  he  was  expected 
to  become  something  of  a  Hogarth ;  it  soon  appeared, 
however,  that  his  gift  was  not  for  satire,  but  for  fun- 
making.  His  humor  sprang  from  a  heart  that  was  pure  and 
warm,  and  was  therefore  gentle  and  crystal  clear.  And  as 
his  heart  matured,  there  flowed  from  it,  also,  a  deep  current 
of  humanity  which  made  the  humor  in  his  art  delicate  and 
appealing,  while  at  the  same  time  his  awakening  sense  of 
beauty  gave  his  work  its  outward  dignity  and  grace. 

Italy  roused  his  sense  of  beauty.  Long  before  he  went  to 
Rome  he  had  adopted  the  familiar  conception  of  the  paint- 
ers' ideal  land  of  sunshine,  common  to  all  representations 
of  Italian  life  by  Northern  artists.  To  their  eyes,  fascinated 
by  the  foreign  aspect  of  a  life  which  in  those  days  still  re- 
tained its  national  costumes  and  manners,  it  seemed  like  a 
carnival  the  year  round.  The  carnival  spirit  was  always  in 
the  air;  they  seized  it,  and  it  seized  them.  In  their  pic- 
tures they  have  shown  us,  as  it  were,  Italy  in  masquerade; 
but  of  what  was  under  the  masquerade  they  rarely  had  very 
much  idea,  so  they  had  little  to  say  of  it.  Like  all  the  other 
pictures  of  Italian  life  at  that  period,  Marstrand's  reproduce 
only  the  surface.  Yet  his  stand  out  because,  far  more  than 
other  Northern  paintings,  they  show  a  feeling  for  the  plastic 
grace  and  rythmic  movement  of  the  human  form.  Mar- 
strand  acquired  this  from  first  hand  study  of  the  beautiful 
Italian  race,  and  it  so  permeated  him  that  it  beautified  and 
softened  his  whole  nature,  so  that  one  would  never  suspect 
that  the  same  artist  had  painted  the  coarse  satires  of  his 

270 


DANISH   ARr   IN    iilK  XIX  C1':N1URV     271 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Young  Italian  Chasing  the  Flies  from  a  Sleeping  Girl,  by  Vilhelm 
Marstrand 


early  youth  and  the  sketches  of  The  October  Festival,  The 
Sisters'  Bed  and  other  playful  and  charming  pictures  from 
his  first  visit  to  Rome. 

In  the  following  period,  while  he  was  living  in  Denmark 
from  1 841  to  1845,  Marstrand  painted,  among  other  things, 
a  series  of  remarkable  portraits.  It  is,  however,  his  illus- 
trations of  Holberg  that  make  this  period  an  epoch  in  his 
artistic  career.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  his  congeniality 
with  Holberg.  Although  Holberg  was  as  far  from  being 
a  painter  as  a  poet  well  could  be,  Marstrand  was  more  of  a 
poet  than  most  painters,  and  his  poetic  strain  turned  easily 
to  laughter,  which  gave  his  attitude  toward  life  something 
in  common  with  Holberg's.  He  is  one  of  the  few  men  In 
modern  times  who  have  attained  a  real  appreciation  of  com- 
edy without  feeling  obliged  to  resort  to  caricature  in  the 
presentation  of  comic  character.      Even  Daumier,  of  whom 


DANISH  ARr  IN  riir:  xix  ci<:NruRY    273 


The   Lying-in    Chamber,    by    Vilhelm    Marstrand.     From    Holberg's 
Comedy 

Marstrand  often  reminds  us  in  his  drawings,  was  more  pre- 
ponderantly a  caricaturist.  In  Marstrand's  illustrations  of 
Holberg  the  interpretation  of  character  is  softened  by 
humor,  and  the  humor  is  elevated  by  the  sense  of  beauty 
which  never  forsakes  him. 

From  1845  to  1848  he  was  off  on  another  long  journey, 
through  Holland  to  Paris  and  back  once  more  to  Rome. 
None  of  his  work  has  attained  such  popularity  in  his  own 
country  as  the  genre  paintings  that  date  from  this  journey. 
They  by  no  means  deserve  their  reputation.  They  show 
insipid  taste,  cheap  prettiness,  often  recalling  the  simpering, 
coquettish  painting  of  the  German  Riedel, 

The  sketches  that  date  from  the  period  of  his  second  jour- 
ney show  no  sign  of  any  such  deterioration.  So  slight,  in 
fact,  was  the  effect  of  the  deterioration  that  on  a  subsequent 
trip  to  Italy  he  proved  himself  capable  of  more  fresh  and 
vigorous  feeling  than  ever  before.  From  this  last  journey 
one  may  date  his  complete  emancipation,  the  final  blossom- 
ing of  his  genius. 


274 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A   Gondolier   Giving  His   Hand    to    a   Young  Maiden, 
bv  Vilhelm  Marstrand 


The  new  acquirements  which  he  brought  home  with  him 
had  not  taken  shape  as  completed  works  in  his  portfolio. 
What  he  brought  home  was  the  courage  with  which  he  had 
been  inspired  to  raise  his  art  toward  what  he  called  "the 
higher  regions."  Venice,  especially,  seems  to  have  fired 
him.  In  the  presence  of  the  great  art  of  Titian  and,  still 
more,  of  Veronese,  he  had  felt  stirring  within  him  the 
power  for  greater  artistic  achievements  than  he  had  hitherto 
attained.  Something  new  appeared  in  his  painting  which 
evidently  came  from  an  expansion  of  his  whole  character. 
The  first  and  most  striking  sign  of  it  was  in  his  increased 
productivity.  Already  industrious,  he  became  prolific:  an 
irresistible  flood  of  paintings,  sketches,  and  drawings  flowed 


DANISH  Aki'  IN  riir:  xix  criNii'in     275 


IHR 

^^^H^ 

t  ■                    r-^- 

^^S^;  --^^^Hf^^l 

^l^^l 

Hip  ^^R^m 

NHHR 

lEik^^lEs 

jfepMi 

The  Prodigal  Son's  Return,  by  Vilhelm  Marstrand 


from  his  hand  and  spread  out  over  the  land.  The  next  sign 
of  the  change  was  in  his  technique;  the  stroke  of  his  brush 
or  his  pen  became  freer  and  bolder,  his  form  and  his  line 
became  more  luxuriant,  more  sensuous,  more  exuberantly 
healthy.  And  as  his  sense  of  beauty  developed,  his  humor 
developed  also;  like  a  ripple  of  laughter  it  spread  out  and 
swept  over  his  paintings,  in  which  he  again  and  again  turned 
back  to  Holberg,  or  to  the  afflicted  hero  of  Salamanca,  who 
is  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  in  his  great  comic  gal- 
lery. At  times  his  spirits  would  ebb;  especially  in  his  old 
age  he  had  many  moments  of  gloom.  The  tide  always 
quickly  rose  again,  however,  and  then  he  would  show  how 
his  heart  could  still  swell  with  the  very  buoyancy  of  youth. 
This  is  best  illustrated,  perhaps,  in  some  of  his  pictures  of 
his  home,  of  his  wife,  and  his  children. 

The  broadening  of  his  character  led  quite  naturally  to 
the  broadening  of  his  field.  He  now  justly  earned  the  title 
of  "historical  painter,"  but  not  in  the  derogatory  sense  which 


276 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


DANISM  ART  IN  TIIR  XTX  Cl^NTURY     277 

the  term  has  acquired  in  our  day.  It  was  life  itself,  not  dead 
history,  that  he  painted,  and  painted  in  such  a  way  that  the 
boundary  between  historical  painting  and  genre  painting  is 
often  hard  to  define.  In  his  religious  pictures,  too,  one  rec- 
ognizes the  genre  painter;  they  owe  their  freshness  to  their 
close  relation  to  actual  life.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in 
his  greatest  easel  painting.  The  Great  Supper  (1869).  Of 
all  his  beautiful  compositions  this  is  the  most  beautiful,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  find  a  picture,  although  pictorially  it  is  not 
one  of  his  best,  which  so  fully  displays  his  finest  and  richest 
gifts.  His  great  love  for  humanity  in  every  walk  of  life  pal- 
pitates in  this  picture,  in  which  he  has  assembled  all  types, 
and  his  strong  affection  for  the  South  is  manifest  in  his 
choice  of  setting — an  Italian  Renaissance  hall,  with  a  table 
laden  with  Italian  wine  and  Italian  fruit,  and  guests  who  are 
the  actual  people  of  the  Italian  streets  and  lanes.  Over  all 
is  a  magical  glamour,  not  produced  by  any  illusion  of  beauti- 
ful color — for  he  was  great  only  as  a  draughtsman,  not  as  a 
colorist — but  reflected  from  the  luxuriance  of  his  lavishly 
splendid  and  generous  spirit. 

Far  from  being  quenched  by  years,  his  spirit  shone  con- 
stantly brighter  and  cast  its  light  over  new  and  wider  regions. 
With  the  exception  of  landscape,  which  played  an  entirely 
insignificant  part  in  his  art,  he  painted  almost  everything. 
Much  of  his  work  was  mediocre,  but  there  is  no  need  to 
dwell  upon  this  fact.  He  concentrated  his  power  on  big 
things  instead  of  spreading  it  evenly  over  lesser  things.  In 
his  later  years  ample  opportunity  arose  for  the  application 
of  his  powers  to  the  solution  of  new  problems  in  the  devel- 
opment of  monumental  design.  In  his  mural  painting  in 
Christian  IV's  chapel  in  Roskilde  Cathedral,  his  grand  and 
virile  characterization  of  the  King  on  board  Trefoldigheden, 
the  composition,  otherwise  excellent,  has  one  fault:  there  is 
material  in  it  for  a  dozen  pictures.  There  is  far  greater 
economy  of  figures,  colors,  and  perspective  in  his  picture  of 
the  inauguration  of  Copenhagen  University,  and,  judging  by 
the  sketches,  his  representation  of  the  Parable  of  the  Tal- 
ents, which  he  unfortunately  did  not  complete,  for  the  Na- 


278 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


tional  Bank  in  Copenhagen,  would  probably  have  attained 
still  more  grandeur  of  style.  The  high  degree  to  which  he 
had  developed  himself  as  a  painter  in  the  grand  style  is  best 
exemplified  in  his  last  design,  for  a  colossal  altar-piece ;  here- 
we  find  the  directness  and  simplicity  which  are  the  highest 
expression  of  artistic  wisdom. 

So  far  and  so  high  had  he  won  his  way  when  he  was 
stopped  by  death.  He  was  in  the  full  course  of  his  most 
fertile  development,  for  all  his  sixty-three  years.  If  he  had 
lived  ten  years  longer,  Danish  art  would  have  been  richer 
by  many  masterpieces.  There  is  little  reason,  however,  to 
brood  over  what  he  had  not  achieved,  for  as  it  was  he  had 
achieved  more  than  any  other  Danish  painter.  His  produc- 
tion was  not  limited  to  his  hundreds  of  paintings  and  painted 
sketches,  but  included  also  several  thousand  drawings,  some- 
times hastily  and  freely  executed  with  a  reed  pen,  his  fav- 
orite tool,  sometimes  carefully  worked  up  with  India  ink 


JlS-fcij^i^i 


0- 


"JV/ 


■  J3^^=;=r^i^^^^ 


Jeppe  Getting  Out  of  Bed,  by  Vilhelm  Marstrand.     From  Holber§ 
Comedy 


DANISH  Akr  IN  rill-:  xix  ci-:NruKY    279 

or  jicncil.  In  order  (o  lorin  an  :i(lc(]u:itc  idea  not  merely 
of  his  manner  hut  of  tlie  whole  Noiume  of  his  i)r(Hluction,  it 
is  essential  to  take  his  ciravvlnjrs  into  consideration,  h'or 
only  a  small  proportion  of  them  arc  projects  for  paintings; 
hy  far  the  greater  number — in  fact  thousands — arc  inde- 
pendent pictures,  which  he  never  executed  in  color. 

Marstrand's  capacity  for  making  pictures  by  the  thou- 
sand is  what  raises  him  above  the  many  talented  painters  of 
the  Danish  school  and  distinguishes  him  as  one  of  its  few 
real  geniuses.  The  comparison,  often  applied  but  almost 
always  misused,  of  a  painter's  imagination  with  a  kaleido- 
scope, applies  to  Marstrand,  and  applies  better  to  him  than 
to  any  other  Danish  artist.  It  was  because  of  the  truly 
kaleidoscopic  play  of  his  Imagination  that  it  could  not  only 
mould  the  material  with  which  it  was  filled,  but  constantly 
remould  it  into  new  pictures,  always  greater  than  the  old, 
till  they  attained  what  justly  may  be  called  the  grand  style. 


THE  EUROPEANS 

MARSTRAND  founded  no  school;  he  was  not  even  a 
good  teacher.  His  great  example,  however,  encour- 
aged a  few  of  the  younger  artists  to  free  themselves 
from  the  subjugation  to  nature  imposed  by  Eckersberg,  and 
to  try  a  flight  on  fancy's  wings  to  times  and  regions  more 
remote.  The  example  of  the  Germans  in  Rome  had  im- 
pelled the  Danish  painters  in  the  same  direction.  The  result 
was  that  about  the  year  1844,  when  Hoyen,  the  historian  of 
art,  began  his  enthusiastic  propaganda  for  a  national  Danish 
art  in  the  spirit  of  Eckersberg  but  with  a  rather  wider  hori- 
zon, there  rose  in  opposition  a  party  whose  tendency  was 
the  direct  reverse — to  give  to  Danish  art  a  more  generally 
European  guise,  with  more  liberal  choice  of  subject  and 
freer  form  of  expression.  This  party  was  heterogeneous. 
It  included  in  its  ranks  a  few  mere  bunglers,  but  also  some 
men  of  considerable  professional  talent,  who  might  have 
become  notable  painters  if  they  had  only  had  a  broader  edu- 
cation as  men  and  sounder  training  as  artists. 

Fru  Jerichau-Baumann,  born  in  Germany,  was  one  of 
those  who  had  great  ability  but  very  little  solidity.  Even 
such  of  her  pictures  as  are  entitled  Denmark  or  A  Wounded 
Danish  Warrior  are  altogether  un-Danish  in  feeling  as  in 
expression.  Un-Danish,  too,  is  her  lack  of  moderation,  es- 
pecially noticeable  in  her  glaring  color  effects.  Most  of  her 
hasty  work  might  be  described  by  the  title  which  she  gave  to 
one  of  her  books — A  Motley  of  Travel-pictures.  "A  mot- 
ley of  travel-pictures"  might  also  be  applied  to  the  marines 
of  Anton  Melbye,  which  just  because  of  their  facile  "inter- 

280 


DANISH  ART   IN  THE  XIX   CIINTURY     281 


Marine,  by  Anton  Melbye 


national"  manner  brought  him  temporary  international  re- 
nown. To  a  far  higher  degree  than  Eckersberg  he  had  an 
eye  for  the  dramatic  aspects  of  sea  and  sky,  but  he  frequently 
prompted  sea  and  sky  in  their  dramatic  parts  by  introducing 
effects  that  were  more  artistic  than  nature's  own.  One  of 
the  great  men  of  the  past  has  said  that  art  is  inherent  in 
nature — "Who  grasps  the  one  has  grasped  the  other." 
Eckersberg  held  a  similar  belief  as  to  the  secret  of  art,  and 
he  held  quite  as  firmly  to  his  faith  when  he  searched  the  sea 
horizon  with  his  telescope;  Melbye,  on  the  other  hand,  be- 
lieved that  the  secret  was  in  the  paint-box.  Much  the  same 
may  be  said  of  his  brother,  Vilhelm  Melbye,  and,  for  that 
matter,  also  of  Sorensen.  The  latter's  pictures  were  usually 
brighter  and  more  smiling  than  Anton  Melbye's,  and  pleased 
the  public  because  the  light  shone  and  gleamed  out  of  them 
with  the  most  fascinating  effect,  which  he  regularly  produced 
by  the  lavish  use  of  little  white  high  lights.  Another  young 
marine  painter,  Neumann,  was  freer  from  routine.  He  was 
a  better  draughtsman,  and  made  more  notable  use  of  his 
palette,  but  he  was  dryer  and  less  at  home  on  the  sea  than 
the  others. 


282  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Two  portrait  painters,  one  of  whom  was  also  a  genre 
painter,  deviated  from  Eckersberg  in  their  domain  in  much 
the  same  way  that  these  marine  painters  had  in  theirs.  Mon- 
ies was  the  more  distinguished  of  the  two.  Judging  by  the 
portraits  which  he  painted  in  the  late  thirties,  he  was  at  that 
time  very  promising.  Later  he  degenerated  as  a  portrait 
painter,  because  he  was  content  to  cater  to  the  unexacting 
public  demand,  and  as  a  genre  painter  he  showed  throughout 
an  unfortunate  propensity  to  lapse  into  the  unconscious 
humor  of  the  vulgar.  In  one  instance,  however,  his  prosaic 
attitude  gave  way  to  a  more  sensitive  perception — when  he 
painted  his  rather  sentimental  but  deeply  moving  picture  of 
The  Soldiers'  Homecoming  in  the  September  Days.  With 
Gertner,  on  the  contrary,  dullness  was  chronic.  Com- 
pletely unmoved,  he  recorded  all  that  he  saw  with  his  frigid 
eye.  At  first  his  rendering  had  the  sharpness  and  precision 
of  miniature  painting;  later  it  became  coarse,  and  raw  and 
brutal  in  coloring. 

The  artists  of  the  group  we  are  discussing  were  gen- 
erally liable  to  offences  against  color — for  instance  J.  L. 
Jensen,  who  painted  flowers,  and  N.  Simonsen,  who  painted 
Arabs,  Jews,  Swedes,  Italians,  Spaniards,  pirate  and  wreck- 
scenes.  Bavarian  landscapes,  views  of  the  desert,  and  endless 
other  things,  none  of  which  he  thoroughly  understood.  An- 
other, Chr.  Holm,  who  lived  in  Munich  and  was  both  a 
battle  painter  and  an  animal  painter,  was  almost  as  versa- 
tile and  no  less  superficial.  The  same  might  be  said  of  Kjaer- 
schou  as  a  landscape  painter  and  of  Schleisner  as  a  figure 
painter;  they  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale.  Lehmann, 
although  a  poor  portrait  painter,  showed  in  a  few  pictures 
of  Copenhagen  society  an  engaging,  half  French  charm  of 
his  own.  N.  F.  Rohde,  whose  specialty  was  winter  land- 
scape, had  a  pleasant  but  rather  tedious  touch.  Brendstrup, 
whose  wandering  life  seems  to  have  kept  him  from  form- 
ing permanent  and  intimate  associations  with  any  place  on 
earth,  had  a  sense  of  decorative  effect  rather  unusual  in 
earlier  Danish  art.  Another  rather  older  landscape  painter, 
Buntzen,  in  his  youth  led  his  class  as  a  draughtsman,  learn- 


DANISH   Mil   IN    I'lll';   XIX  Cl'lNTUkY     283 

ing  easily  and  quickly;  hut  later  his  facility  took  the  fatal 
form  of  learning  nature  hy  heart  instead  of  continuing  to 
study  it.  The  most  gifted,  unquestionahly,  was  (jurlitt, 
whose  life  and  art,  however,  belong  rather  to  Germany  than 
to  Denmark,  which  he  left  for  good  in  1843. 

Such  was  the  motley,  ill-assorted  company!  All  of  them 
were  more  or  less  subject  to  European  influences,  but  it  is 
worth  noticing  that  they  were  not  influenced  by  the  great  pro- 
gressive geniuses  of  the  important  countries,  but  by  the  com- 
monplace, average  art.  They  painted  to  produce  pictures 
for  the  public,  not  to  produce  art.  Hoyen  was  no  refined 
gourmet  In  matters  of  art;  he  was  rather  too  fond  of  art 
cooked  and  served  for  home  consumption.  Still,  he  has  the 
honor  of  being  for  many  years  the  only  critic  who  refused  to 
accept  this  group  of  painters.  For  all  his  onesidedness,  his 
general  opinion  was  correct.  In  a  few  individual  cases  his 
opinion  was  Incorrect,  and  In  one  case  was  utterly  wrong. 
He  did  not  properly  understand  (and  perhaps  did  not  prop- 
erly know)  the  work  of  the  landscape  painter  Kjeldrup,  in 
whose  pictures,  despite  their  false  coloring  and  mannerisms 
of  execution,  one  occasionally  finds  really  effective  and  Intel- 
ligent painting.  What  seems  more  Inexcusable  from  our 
modern  point  of  view,  he  saw  nothing  whatever  In  Frollch. 

This  painter  was  equipped  by  nature  with  qualities  not 
common  among  Danes.  For  one  thing,  he  had  an  unmate- 
rlal  mind,  which  took  naturally  to  fancy.  His  fancy  was  no 
uncertain  wandering,  but  a  lofty  flight;  there  was  no  need  to 
fear  that  It  might  come  to  some  bad  end.  His  was  a  winged 
horse  which  found  Its  way  surely  across  the  skies  to  the 
legendary  world  whence  came  the  shapes  that  filled  his  Imag- 
ination. It  Is  easy  to  understand  that  a  man  with  such  a 
fortunate  endowment  would  believe  himself  able  to  dispense 
with  schools.  Frollch  had  little  to  do  with  them  In  his  youth, 
and  later,  nothing  whatever.  For  a  short  time  he  was  a 
pupil  of  Eckersberg,  but  no  trace  of  Eckersberg  Is  to  be 
found  In  his  work.  He  was  no  more  than  twenty  when  he 
left  Denmark  and  settled  In  Germany,  first  at  Munich  and 
later  at  Dresden.     He  found  kinship  to  his  romantic  dispo- 


284 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Will   Edna    Give   Me   a   Kiss?   by   Lorens 
Frolich.     Illustration  for  a  children's  book 


sition  and  his  enthu- 
siasm for  the  legend- 
ary past  among  many 
of  the  Germans  of 
that  period,  espe- 
cially in  Schnorr  von 
Carolsfeld  and  Lud- 
wig  R  i  c  h  t  e  r,  both 
of  whom  influenced 
him  strongly.  From 
Richter  he  adopted 
the  first  form  of  his 
pictures  for  children, 
from  Schnorr  the  first 


form   of   his   saga-pictures. 

It  was  in  Germany  that  he  learned  his  drawing;  his  paint- 
ing he  learned  in  France.  As  a  painter,  however,  he  never 
developed  an  independent  palette,  and  he  did  not  care 
much  whether  he  did  or  not.  Line  appealed  to  his  im- 
agination far  more  than  color.  The  weavings  of  his  fancy 
were  strange  ornamental  patterns  of  plant  and  animal  life 
inextricably  intertwined  with  human  figures  In  some  of  the 
most  luxuriant  arabesques  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  At 
the  time  when  Frolich  executed  for  a  French  publisher  the 
several  thousand  pictures  for  children  which  were  to  be  the 
forerunners  of  his  great  series  of  world  famous  children's 
books,  he  was  still  able  to  compose  without  conventionalizing. 
It  Is  the  naturalness,  not  the  art,  that  one  admires  in  these 
books.  His  general  talent  for  composition,  however,  soon 
developed  Into  a  special  talent  for  decoration.  A  single  ceil- 
ing-painting shows  that  he  could  have  mastered  the  problems 
of  monumental  decoration,  but  for  the  time  being  he  did  no 
more  work  of  this  kind.  The  best  of  his  unequalled  decor- 
ative drawing  went  Into  illustrations  for  books,  or  sets  of 
prints,  especially  etchings.  This  work  was  not  merely  dec- 
orative. Though  Frolich  sometimes  went  to  the  extreme  of 
making  the  text  accompanying  his  pictures  Into  a  sort  of 
ornamental  border  round  the  drawing,  skillfully  printing  the 


DANISH   ARI'   IN    rill<:   XIX   Cl<:NrUKV     285 


.,VJ.v.V    V 

•T     . 

"Mo.,.^ 

7)'  t 

M 

tpco     7^^<>3     XJvc'l 

w 

,    _   ,.  r._u    . 

.  -^B 

~ 

"'^« 

'^"t  ^        .  n     ^, 

,-9 

'is: 

^ir    .-T-    .►      ^       r   _^ 

.   7r'^ 

h   r          1    ,            ' 

t       , 

^    "' 

,              1 

;j 

Thor's  Visit  to  Utgard.    Etching  by  Lorens  Frolich 


286  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

letters  with  his  own  hands,  he  was  far  more  than  a  mere 
embroiderer  of  pages.  He  had  a  sincere  and  mystically  deep 
feeling  for  the  world  of  myth  and  saga  whose  inhabitants 
his  inspired  pen  or  etcher's  needle  so  memorably  portrayed. 
In  some  of  the  greatest  achievements,  in  a  few  of  his  most 
inspired  pictures  of  the  Northern  legendary  period,  it  cer- 
tainly is  hard  to  find  any  specifically  Danish  quality  in  his 
splendid  imagination.  At  least  it  is  not  to  be  measured 
by  any  Danish  standard.  The  fault  may  be  rather  with  Den- 
mark than  with  Frolich,  and,  if  this  is  true,  his  place  is  not 
outside  but  beyond  the  evolution  of  Danish  art. 

While  his  star  climbed  slowly  and  did  not  reach  its  zenith 
till  his  old  age,  Carl  Bloch's  star  turned  pale  with  surprising 
rapidity  after  shining  for  a  generation  with  a  lustre  hitherto 
unseen  in  the  skies  of  Denmark,  usually  so  devoid  of  marvels. 
Early  in  his  career  Bloch  was  designated  the  heir  of  Mar- 
strand,  and  more  than  that,  a  painter  of  European  magni- 
tude. In  his  earliest  paintings  from  the  life  of  the  common 
people  his  talent  for  dramatic  narration  became  evident,  and 
in  those  that  followed  his  comic  vein  appeared.  Then  the 
very  first  pictures  that  he  sent  home  from  Italy  proved  that 
his  pictorial  power  was  unusual.  A  series  of  historical  and 
biblical  paintings  of  large  dimensions  further  indicated  a 
steady  rise  toward  the  highest  standards  of  art,  especially  in 
his  Prometheus,  painted  in  1865,  and  regarded  as  a  great 
achievement,  a  sign  that  the  nation  was  reviving  after  its 
defeat  of  the  preceding  year.  Then  came  light-hearted 
genre  paintings  from  Italy,  and  the  first  of  the  series  of 
paintings  for  Frederiksborg,  a  number  of  portraits,  a  few 
studies  of  Copenhagen  types,  and  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
the  Danish  historical  pictures,  among  which  the  painting  of 
Christian  II  in  Sonderborg  Prison  did  more  than  any  other 
of  his  works  to  make  his  name  loved  and  honored. 

Of  course  an  artist  must  have  marked  ability  to  raise 
such  a  stir  in  the  course  of  a  dozen  years.  He  did  have  the 
faculty,  among  others,  of  simple,  unified  composition,  which 
makes  a  picture  remain  Indelible  in  the  memory.  Besides, 
Bloch's  coloring  was  stronger  and  more  brilliant  than  any- 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XTX  CENTURY     287 


Christian   II   in  Sondeiborg  Prison,  by   Carl  Blocli 

thing  seen  before.  This  was  no  trifling  patchwork  of 
studies  from  nature,  but  light  and  shade  applied  with  an 
excellent  eye  for  effect.  This  was  the  sure,  purposeful  work 
of  an  unusually  clear  and  Intelligent  mind,  with  a  masterful 
grasp  of  its  problems.  Lastly,  here  was  a  fresh  spring  of 
human  emotion;  such  moving  interpretation  of  suffering 
plainly  rose  from  the  deepest  human  sympathy. 

The  phenomenon,  In  fact,  was  dazzling.     It  was  danger- 


288  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

ous,  however,  to  be  a  shining  marvel,  year  in  and  year  out, 
before  the  eyes  of  a  pubHc  as  easily  dazzled  as  the  Danes  of 
that  day.  From  the  use  of  strong  measures  the  step  was 
short  to  the  misuse  of  them.  Bloch  took  the  false  step.  He 
was  given  to  strong,  crude,  almost  aniline  colors,  too  violent 
contrasts  between  light  and  shade,  and  excessive  use  of  bril- 
liant lighting,  and  although  he  loved  the  world's  greatest 
color  symphonist  and  tried  his  hand  sometimes  at  Rem- 
brandt's effects,  especially  in  etchings,  his  results  were  cheap 
and  coarse.  His  pictures  too  often  shout  in  one's  ear  things 
better  left  to  be  guessed,  to  be  inferred  by  the  intelligence  or 
the  imagination.  It  was  his  misfortune  that  he  so  early  made 
the  whole  public  his  public.  He  was  forced  to  speak  loud 
that  all  the  deaf  might  hear;  hence  his  gross  and  violent 
means. 

Olrik  had  better  taste.  He  was  an  eclectic  who  learned  a 
certain  academically  external  and  impersonal  form,  first 
from  Couture  in  Paris  and  later  from  the  masters  of  the 
Italian  High  Renaissance.  He  became  the  amiable  and 
correct  portrait  painter  of  good  society,  and  finally,  by  mus- 
tering all  his  diligence,  energy,  and  refinement,  he  achieved 
an  equally  correct  altar-piece,  setting  forth  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  for  the  Matthaeuskirke  in  Copenhagen.  He  also 
devoted  his  taste  and  his  knowledge  of  style  to  the  creation 
of  lesser  decorative  works  of  many  varieties. 

Of  very  different  stamp  was  a  young  artist  who  attracted 
a  certain  amount  of  attention  in  the  late  thirties  and  prob- 
ably would  have  aroused  a  good  deal  more  if  Bloch  had  not 
at  that  moment  cast  even  the  best  into  the  shade.  To  be 
sure,  L.  A.  Schou  showed  nothing  more  than  promise,  but 
it  was  a  greater  and  more  reckless  promise  than  is  usually 
offered  by  the  artistic  youth  of  Denmark.  Eager,  nervous, 
passionate,  he  was  unlike  the  phlegmatic  Dane.  His  very 
first  portraits,  a  series  of  young  women  with  pride  of  race 
In  their  bearing  and  southern  sweetness  in  their  expression, 
were  un-Danish.  A  worldly,  gallant  point  of  view,  imposed 
by  a  romantic  worship  of  women,  makes  them  distinct  in 
style  and  manner  from  all  other  Danish  portraits.      Con- 


DANISH   ARr   IN    rill-:   XIX   CI-NTUKY     2<S9 


i 

1 

"■     p' 

fc&'         ■  Ik  -• 

m-^^-'i&^^^k.^.: 

Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Grandfather,  by  L.  A.  Schou 

temporaneous  work  of  another  kind  marks  Schou  as  a  for- 
mer pupil  of  Marstrand,  but  the  differences  between  him 
and  his  master  are  so  great  as  to  be  noticeable.  There  was 
something  of  the  falcon  in  the  younger  man;  even  before  his 
fancy  took  flight  his  eye  for  the  actual  was  as  piercing  as  the 
falcon's. 

In  1864  he  went  to  Rome,  and  in  that  year  and  several 
following  he  gave  brilliant  proof  of  his  great  qualities  in  a 
series  of  big  genre  paintings,  in  which,  however,  he  did  not 
succeed  in  getting  very  far  away  from  his  studies  of  his 


290 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Scene  from  Ragnarok.     Sketch  by  L.  A.  Schou 

models.  He  attained  his  greatest  heights  in  the  preliminary 
sketches  that  he  made  for  a  great  cycle  of  scenes  from  the 
Ragnarok  myth.  It  is  natural  that  in  the  hands  of  a  "Eu- 
ropean" like  Schou  the  figures  of  Norse  mythology  should 
have  taken  a  form  which  was  neither  Greek,  as  it  was  with 
Freund,  nor  Northern,  as  it  was  with  Constantin  Hansen. 
Rather,  there  is  something  French  about  these  drawings, 
which  occasionally  recall  Dore.  Yet  they  are  more  cleverly 
drawn  than  most  of  Dore's  work,  and  almost  the  only  thing 
Schou  learned  from  him  was  to  abandon  himself  to  an  imag- 
inary world  of  swirling  fire,  like  Dore's  own.  It  was  not 
anything  distinctively  Scandinavian  in  Norse  mythology  that 
attracted  him;  it  was  of  no  more  value  to  him  than  a  great 
many  subjects  from  Shakespeare;  he  painted  Orestes  pursued 
by  the  Furies  In  exactly  the  same  spirit  that  he  drew  the 
scenes  from  Ragnarok.  All  these  were  merely  outlets  for 
his  imagination,  which  poured  through  his  consciousness, 
agonizing  and  chaotic,  and  held  him  like  a  nightmare  until 
he  had  given  it  definite  expression.     Here  sits  Hodr  in  a 


DANISH  ART   IN    1111-:  XIX   CI-NIUKY     291 

lonely  corner  ol  the  earth  and  waits  lor  Ka^narok.  Here 
Herniodr  gropes  his  way  lorward  toward  1  lel's  throne  in  tlie 
underworld.  Here  Thor  and  his  servant  bind  Loki  with 
Narli's  entrails,  while  Skadi  pins  the  venomous  snake  to 
the  rock  above  his  heatl,  and  Sigyn  catches  the  poison.  Here 
Hel  with  her  dismal,  silent  train  passes  on  a  moonless  winter 
night  through  the  woods  to  Ragnarok,  startling  an  owl  and 
huge  fantastic  bats.  Here  Thor  buries  his  hammer  in  the 
head  of  the  Midgard  Serpent,  which  spouts  venom  in  his 
face.  Here,  finally,  mountains  reel,  the  sun  darkens,  the 
heavens  catch  fire  as  the  battles  rage  on  the  ultimate  day. 
All  this  and  more  Schou  has  set  forth  with  a  daring  and  a 
demoniacal  passion  unique  in  the  quiet  art  of  Denmark. 

There  are  times,  however,  when  It  seems  that  death  favors 
the  moderate  In  art  as  In  life.  It  overtook  this  prodigal  In 
time  to  prevent  further  extravagances  of  fancy;  It  likewise 
overtook  In  early  youth  two  others  who  might  have  helped 
to  change  the  mood  of  Danish  art  from  the  small  to  the 
great.  One  was  Harald  Jerlchau,  who  died  when  he  was 
only  twenty-five.  Son  of  the  German-born  and  German- 
trained  Fru  Jerlchau-Baumann,  taught  by  a  French  painter 
In  Rome,  living  for  a  time  In  Turkey,  for  a  time  In  Greece, 
for  a  time  In  Italy,  he  was  to  an  unfortunate  degree  lacking 
In  associations  with  his  native  land.  There  Is  something 
thin,  superficial,  and  suggestive  of  stage  scenery  about  his 
works,  especially  the  best  known  of  all,  the  big  picture  of  the 
plain  of  Sardls,  which  makes  them  very  unsatisfactory.  Yet 
In  the  best  of  his  landscapes  and  marines  there  Is  something 
of  the  touch  of  a  really  great  painter,  and  of  that  Danish  art 
has  had  far  too  little.  The  second,  or  rather  the  third,  of 
the  artists  who  died  prematurely  was  Jorgen  Roed's  son, 
Holger  Roed.  It  Is  of  course  Impossible  to  say  whether  he 
would  ever  have  been  able  to  work  up  into  paintings  all  the 
lovely  Ideas  which  he  had  time  only  to  Indicate  In  drawings 
and  sketches.  Possibly  he  might  never  have  succeeded  In 
modifying  the  form  of  the  Renaissance  masters — especially 
Rubens — whom  he  so  admired.  Into  a  style  answering  to  the 
needs  of  his  own  more  unassuming  character.     But  the  mere 


292  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

fact  that  a  young  artist  who  had  such  beautiful  thoughts  and 
such  bold  enthusiasms  and  so  much  sense  of  style  and  gran- 
deur had  actually  obtained  a  hearing  might  well  have  been 
of  high  significance  in  the  subsequent  development  of  Dan- 
ish art.  For  despite  the  efforts  of  the  Europeans,  Danish 
art  was  becoming  more  and  more  homely,  just  as  the  spirit 
of  the  country  tended  toward  homely  simplicity,  a  process 
which  was  considerably  hastened  by  the  national  revival, 
under  the  powerful  leadership  of  Hoyen,  in  the  period  be- 
tween 1848  and  1864.  How  the  country  was  finally, won 
over  to  the  cause  of  art  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter. 


VI 
THE  NATIONALISTS 

IN  the  years  immediately  preceding  1848  the  impulse 
toward  national  unity,  which,  so  to  speak,  constituted  the 
very  existence  of  Denmark  in  the  forties,  was  eager  to 
grasp  anything  that  might  be  employed  as  a  spiritual  weapon. 
Even  the  artists  were  mobilized  and  placed  under  orders. 
They  received  their  orders  on  the  March  day  In  1844  when 
Hoyen  made  his  famous  address  "On  the  requirements  for 
the  development  of  a  Scandinavian  National  Art." 

"The  man  of  the  North,"  he  said,  "must  first  be  under- 
stood in  all  his  peculiarities;  our  senses  must  be  sharpened 
for  what  is  big  and  homelike  in  our  natural  surroundings, 
before  we  can  hope  to  create  a  popular,  historical  art.  .  .  . 
Nor  Is  every  trace  of  the  olden  times  wiped  out,  even  now 
after  the  lapse  of  centuries The  simplicity  and  bold- 
ness, the  patriarchal  life,  with  which  we  still  meet  in  the 

fishing  villages  and  the  towns  throughout  Denmark 

still  throw  an  Illuminating  gleam  on  those  bygone  days.  Yet 
— these  figures  are  vulgar,  their  joviality  Is  heavy,  their 
sorrow  devoid  of  dignity  or  grace.  .  .  .  but  to  him  who 
looks  beneath,  whose  sympathy  does  not  merely  skim  the 
surface,  to  the  real  artist,  there  Is  here  a  rich  vein  of  pure 
precious  metal.  Lay  bare  that  treasure  and  it  will  shine  In 
the  eyes  of  all." 

It  seems  that  H.  I.  Hammer  was  one  of  the  first  to 
respond  to  Hoyen's  appeal.  He  had  a  responsive  and  poetic 
disposition,  and  there  was  much  that  he  wanted  to  say,  but 
soon  after  his  first  appearance  he  was  rendered  rather  super- 
fluous by  Sonne,  who  had  similar  alms  and  found  it  more 

293 


294 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Sick  Sleeping  on  Helen's  Grave,  by  Jorgen  Sonne 


easy  to  express  them.  Sonne  had  gone  on  his  travels  at  an 
early  age  and  had  completed  a  stage  of  his  development  in 
Munich,  and  therefore  was  less  trained  in  the  use  of  his  eyes 
than  Eckersberg's  other  pupils.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
more  of  a  dreamer  and  a  poet.  When  he  returned,  he  seized 
the  opportunity  of  realizing  his  youthful  ambition  to  become 
a  battle  painter.  He  took  part  in  both  our  wars,  and  painted 
battle  scenes  from  them  that  were  far  more  real  than  his 
earlier  more  purely  abstract  productions  in  the  same  field, 
although  his  treatment  of  the  horrors  of  war  was  evidently 
softened  by  the  idyllic  background  of  the  battles,  the  placid 
Danish  countryside.  His  first  contact  with  the  life  of  the 
Danish  people  had  thus  been  made.  Already  romantically 
inclined,  he  approached  the  life  of  the  people  from  the 
romantic  side  of  its  natural  surroundings.  He  gave  vent  to 
his  love  of  mankind  and  his  feeling  for  nature,  not  in  a  fore- 
ground and  a  background  respectively,  but  in  a  single  all- 
pervasive  mood.     He  was  most  strongly  attracted  by  the 


DANISM    AUr   IN    III  I'!   XIX   CIlNrURY      295 

bright  NorllKTii  summer  nights  witii  their  lliilcl  mists  and 
tJK'ir  mcltiii}:;  s;uliicss.  It  was  under  tlie  sky  of  a  midsummer 
night  that  he  presented  The  Sick  Sleepinj^  on  1  Iclen's  (jrave. 
It  was  under  the  same  sky  that  he  painted  The  Minister 
Going  to  Visit  a  Sick  Person  Beyond  the  Hill. 

The  sureness  of  his  coloring,  so  long  as  he  was  evaluating 
the  veiled  tones  of  the  summer  night,  gave  way  to  uncer- 
tainty when  he  tried  to  harmonize  the  colors  of  bright  sun- 
light. He  had  no  natural  gift  for  form.  Perhaps  it  is  just 
because  the  painter  makes  so  little  impression  in  his  pictures 
that  the  poet  is  so  conspicuous  in  them.  In  many  of  his 
paintings  of  the  life  of  the  people  there  is  something  of  the 
primitive  folk-poetry,  something  of  the  deep  simplicity  and 
universality  which  springs  from  the  complete  ingenuousness 
of  naive  hearts,  and  finds  utterance  in  a  form  that  is  monu- 
mental though  entirely  artless.  It  is  this  same  naive  monu- 
mental form  that  lends  a  special  charm  to  Sonne's  splendid 
sgraffiato  pictures  on  the  exterior  of  the  Thorvaldsen 
Museum. 

Danish  art  had  acquired  its  first  great  dreamer  and  in- 
terpreter of  moods;  at  just  the  same  time  it  found  in  Dals- 
gaard  its  first  great  psychologist  and  dramatic  interpreter, 
who  was  a  real  painter  besides.  In  contrast  to  Sonne,  who 
lived  the  best  moments  of  his  artistic  existence  under  the 
open  sky,  Dalsgaard  preferred  to  seek  his  inspiration  in- 
doors among  the  human  beings  whom  it  was  his  life's  work 
to  portray.  He  belonged  to  a  period  when  national  cos- 
tumes were  still  worn  and  the  capital  had  not  yet  despoiled 
the  rural  homesteads  of  their  characteristic  old-fashioned 
furnishings.  He  carefully  collected  studies  of  all  these 
things,  but  not  for  the  purpose  of  displaying  them  in  his  pic- 
tures as  curiosities.  He  certainly  did  not  fail  to  realize  that 
these  things  had  a  picturesque  value  which  made  them  worth 
his  attention,  but  from  the  unobtrusive  way  they  are  intro- 
duced into  his  interiors  it  is  plain  they  did  not  distract  his 
attention  from  what  was  intrinsically  human.  The  narra- 
tion is  consequently  very  forcible  in  Dalsgaard's  pictures; 
often  it  fairly  leaps  out  of  the  foreground  at  the  beholder. 


296 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


D.WMsii  Ak'i^  IN  I  in:  XIX  ci:N'n)kv    i^)7 

I'\)r  his  time,  he  was  almost  too  recklessly  truthful.  The 
sorrow  in  his  pictures  was  in  earnest,  in  hitter  earnest,  and 
nothing  of  the  kind  had  hccn  seen  hefore  in  Danish  Art,  least 
of  all  among  surroundings  where  people  were  accustomed  to 
look  for  nothing  except  rustic  idylls.  He  was  himself  of 
peasant  birth  and  knew  that  life  is  not  sheer  sunshine  In  the 
country  any  more  than  it  is  in  town.  He  left  still  life  to 
Vermehren,  he  left  Sunday  scenes  to  Exner;  what  he  pre- 
ferred to  describe  himself  was  the  stormy  days  which  go 
straight  to  the  bone  and  marrow  of  the  strong  and  make 
the  feeble  droop  and  weaken.  His  penetrating  eye — the  eye 
of  a  psychologist,  almost  of  a  pathologist — probed  to  the 
bottom  of  profound  human  conflicts;  it  searched  the  souls 
of  the  unfortunates  whom  necessity  drives  from  their  homes 
as  in  Dispossessed,  or  for  whom  their  own  faith  and  trustful- 
ness have  set  snares  as  in  The  Mormons.  In  default  of  other 
conflicts,  there  was  always  the  conflict  of  love,  and  his  pic- 
tures have  given  us  poignant  glimpses  both  of  the  love  of 
parents  and  children  and  of  the  love  of  husband  and  wife. 
In  most  of  these  pictures  love  leads  to  sorrow  and  weeping, 
whether  it  is  the  hard-heartedness  of  parents  or  cruel  death 
that  separates  the  lovers.  But  tears  do  not  flow  in  Dals- 
gaard's  art,  they  only  sparkle  in  the  mourner's  eyes.  Sor- 
row does  not  tear  the  figures  asunder;  it  devours  them  in- 
wardly. Only  rarely  do  we  see  one  of  the  young  women 
break  down  in  the  agony  of  love,  and  then  there  is  always 
the  mother's  hand  tenderly  to  stroke  her  hair,  or  the 
mother's  shoulder  on  which  she  can  lay  her  head.  In  his 
later  love  scenes,  Dalsgaard  struck  gentler,  milder,  more 
harmonious  chords.  In  these  he  pictured  the  young  girl's 
longing  and  anticipation,  waiting  for  her  bridegroom,  or 
reading  a  letter  from  her  lover,  or  writing  his  name  on  a 
window  pane;  in  the  mood  of  these  women,  with  their  over- 
flowing hearts  and  their  hearts'  secrets,  there  is  often  a  sweet- 
ness like  that  of  the  lyrics  of  Christian  Winther.  Yet  these 
do  not  compare  artistically  with  the  more  bitter  work  of  his 
maturer  years. 

Long  settled  and  fast  rooted  in  his  post  in  a  small  pro- 


298 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Visit  to  the  Village  Carpenter,  by  Christen  Dalsgaard 


vihcial  town  in  central  Sjcelland,  far  from  the  Jutland  re- 
gions where  he  had  collected  his  studies,  he  squandered  the 
capital  he  had  amassed  till  it  shrank  to  almost  nothing. 
Then,  although  his  great  power  had  been  the  heightening  of 
dramatic  illusion  by  deceptive  rendering  of  material  objects, 
he  finally  produced  a  series  of  religious  pictures  in  which  he 
so  toned  down  the  dramatic  effects  as  to  spiritualize  them  to 
the  point  of  absolute  unreality.  These  are  mentioned  here 
for  the  sake  of  completeness,  not  with  the  intention  of  dis- 
paraging Dalsgaard.  The  work  of  his  maturity  gives  him 
a  sure  place  in  the  first  rank  of  Danish  painters. 

There  is  some  question,  on  the  contrary,  as  to  whether 
Exner  will  eventually  hold  the  place  at  Dalsgaard's  side 
which  has  hitherto  been  assigned  to  him.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent he  won  men's  hearts  as  no  other  Danish  artist  ever  had, 


DANISH  AR'I'   IN  TITF,  XIX   CKNTURY     299 

hut  he  succcctlcd  hy  smiling  his  w:iy  into  them,  not  hy  grip- 
[Miig  them  with  any  strong  passion.  Whereas  life — harsh  as 
it  is  in  the  pinched  circumstances  of  the  country  districts — 
hurned  itself  into  Dalsgaard's  consciousness,  on  I^xner's  its 
traces  are  faint,  in  so  far  as  they  are  perceptible  at  all.  It 
is  only  life  in  its  gentlest  aspect,  child-life,  which  we  can 
grant  that  he  presented  truthfully  in  his  pictures.  He  was 
the  first  Danish  painter  to  show  a  perception  of  the  amus- 
ingly naive  side  of  children,  but  his  achievement  went  no 
further  than  that. 

He  never  had  anything  like  the  understanding  of  the  peas- 
ants of  Amager  and  the  fishermen  of  Fano  that  Dalsgaard 
had  of  the  people  of  Sailing  Land.  He  remained  a  holiday 
visitor  from  Copenhagen,  to  whom  country  life  seemed  an 
ideal  Sunday  existence.  One  must  realize  his  amiability,  and 
also  his  habit  of  looking  from  his  own  very  proper  and  pure 
point  of  view  at  everything  which  was  not  externally  so 
clean  that  it  glistened,  in  order  to  understand  why  every- 


The  Little  Convalescent,  by  Julius  Exner 


300  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

thing  that  comes  from  his  hand  seems  so  extraordinary.  It 
is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  characters  in  Exner's  painting 
are  scrubbed  clean,  hke  the  floors  in  his  interiors;  they  are 
scoured  and  poHshed  hke  the  coppers  and  brasses  on  the 
walls.  His  art  positively  shines  with  unsullied  youth  and 
wholesomeness. 

There  was  different  stuff  in  Vermehren,  and  far  more 
genuine.  He  was  a  man  who  could  not  get  a  close  enough 
hold  on  life,  and  who  consequently  very  soon  gave  up  trying 
to  grasp  its  movement  or  its  fleeting  moods,  and  made  him- 
self the  painter  of  what  one  might  call  human  still  life.  We 
need  not  discuss  whether  or  not  Vermehren,  who  later  be- 
came the  fashionable  Copenhagen  portrait  painter,  really 
felt  himself  bound  by  the  heartstrings  to  the  life  of  the  com- 
mon people,  which  he  chose  to  paint  in  his  youth;  he  cer- 
tainly was  not  at  home  among  the  people  in  the  way  that 
Dalsgaard  was.  But  the  subjects  that  he  selected  from 
every-day  life  appealed  to  his  eye  as  Dalsgaard's  subjects 
appealed  to  his  heart,  and  he  went  just  as  deeply  into  his 
subjects  by  means  of  observation  as  Dalsgaard  did  by  means 
of  emotion.  He  stands  far  below  Dalsgaard  in  his  human 
limitations,  but  he  stands  above  him  in  his  complete  ab- 
sorption in  his  work. 

In  this  last  respect  he  established  a  record.  A  sporting 
term  may  seem  out  of  place  in  this  connection,  but  it  fits. 
He  went  in  for  observation  as  if  it  had  been  a  sport,  and 
found  the  sportsman's  satisfaction  in  developing  his  special 
aptitude  into  a  hobby.  Neither  in  his  Copenhagen  interiors 
with  one  or  two  figures,  however,  nor  in  the  long  series  of 
portraits  that  from  about  1870  onward  became  his  most 
useful  form  of  production,  did  he  succeed  in  maintaining  the 
intensity  which  gives  his  youthful  paintings  of  the  life  of  the 
people,  especially  The  Shepherd  on  the  Heath,  their  place 
among  the  profoundest  studies  of  primitive  Danish  char- 
acter which  our  art  has  ever  undertaken. 

Such  a  spirit  of  enterprise,  unfortunately,  was  not  destined 
to  endure  among  the  older  figure  painters,  nor  could  it  pro- 
pagate itself  among  the  younger.     It  was  lacking  in  Siegum- 


i)y\Nisii  Mil  IN  rill':  \i\  ci'Nrukv    301 


The  Shepherd  on  the  Heath,  by  Frederik  Vermehren 

feldt,  who  took  more  delight  in  telling  a  jolly  story,  or  a  sad 
one,  from  the  Hfe  of  the  people,  with  the  help  of  several 
figures,  than  in  earnest  inquiry  into  individual  character.  It 
was  also  lacking  in  A.  Dorph,  whose  popular  pictures  make 
less  attempt  to  render  an  impression  of  actual  nature  than  to 
set  forth  a  rather  thin-blooded  idealist's  ready  profession  of 
ideals.  It  was  only  in  Hans  Smidth,  a  rather  younger  artist, 
that  the  men  who  painted  the  life  of  our  people  realistically 
in  the  fifties  found  a  continuator  in  the  sixties.  Right  down 
to  our  own  day  he  preserved  and  constantly  developed  a 
sense  of  character  that  in  many  ways  compared  with  Dals- 
gaard's,  and  a  sense  of  locality  which  recalled  Blicher  and 
lent  unusual  authenticity  to  his  presentation  of  the  aspect  of 
nature  in  Jutland  and  of  the  temper  of  Jutland. 

As  has  been  suggested,  here  and  there  in  these  first  illus- 
trations of  Danish  folk-life  we  recognize  a  tone  that  accords 
with  the  tones  of  contemporaneous  Danish  poetry.  This 
does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  painting  of  Danish  life 
in  that  period  was  an  art  which  had  many  points  of  contact 


302 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Sheep  at  a  Barrow,  by  Johan  Thomas  Lundbye 


with  poetry  and  music.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  an  art,  like 
that  of  the  old  Dutch  masters,  which  found  its  chief  expres- 
sion in  realistic  painting.  When  it  is  said  in  reference  to  this 
period  that  "the  poets  sang  a  soul  of  their  own  into  nature, 
and  the  painters  could  not  remain  deaf  to  their  song,"  It 
applies  very  poorly  to  the  figure  painters,  and  really  fits  only 
one  of  the  landscape  painters,  the  one  of  whom  the  remark 
was  originally  made,  Lundbye.  His  extremely  impression- 
able senses,  early  aroused  by  the  national  poetry,  were  in- 
fused with  an  ardent  affection  for  his  native  land  till  they 
vibrated  at  the  slightest  touch  of  his  beloved  Danish  nature. 
The  sounding-board  of  his  nerves  might  be  described  as 
humming  rather  than  as  singing,  but  in  any  case  the  humming 
never  was  silenced.  It  flooded  his  being  with  its  rhythms 
and  made  even  his  technique  rhythmical.  His  art  is  there- 
fore poetry,  even  when  it  attempts  no  more  than  prose.  It 
Is  not  only  among  the  prehistoric  barrows  which  he  loved 
so  dearly  that  his  mood  is  poetically  exalted;  the  exaltation 
accompanied  him  wheresoever  he  fared  in  Denmark. 

He  is  a  greater  master  of  line  than  of  color.  The  poetic 
quality  is  far  more  manifest  in  his  drawing  than  in  his  pal- 
ette.  What  he  loved  best  was  Sja^lland,  with  its  long,  gentle 


DANISH   Akr   IN    II  II'    XIX   CI'.N'rilRY      303 


Milklng-place  at  Vognserup,  by  johan  Thomas  Lundbye 

ranges  of  hills  or  its  wide  sweeps  to  the  far  horizon.  His 
heart,  overflowing  with  goodness,  made  him  the  friend  of 
animals,  of  flowers,  and  of  children,  and  Inclined  him  much 
more  toward  placid  than  toward  wild  scenery.  The  tinge  of 
sadness  in  his  disposition  is  distinguishable  in  his  landscapes, 
but  their  tone  Is  very  rarely  melancholy. 

Like  so  many  of  the  others  whose  work  is  treated  In  this 
chapter,  he  travelled  in  Italy  and  other  countries,  but  on  him, 
as  on  most  of  them,  the  effect  was  insignificant.  By  this  time 
people  went  abroad  when  they  were  grown  men  In  order  to 
Increase  their  knowledge,  not,  as  they  had  at  an  earlier  date, 
to  lay  or  to  relay  the  foundations  of  their  development. 
More  quickly  than  most,  Lundbye  found  his  taste  for  roving 
giving  way  to  homesickness.  There  is  a  delightful  drawing 
from  the  end  of  his  journey,  in  which  he  has  anticipated  the 
joy  of  returning  to  his  friends  the  animals  at  home.  He  has 
represented  himself  here,  as  he  so  often  did  before  and  after- 
wards, in  the  guise  of  one  of  the  good  "NIsser"  or  "little 
folk"  of  whose  potterlngs  about  threshing  floor  and  stable 
and  pasture  his  own  pursuits  reminded  him.     Perhaps  he 


304 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


found  rather  too  much  solace  in  this  resemblance,  and  was 
too  prone  to  pottering  about  nature  and  art;  perhaps  he 
resembled  his  beloved  fairy-folk  in  this,  also:  that  the  re- 
sults he  attained  did  not  always  correspond  in  their  scope 
and  significance  to  the  amount  of  work  he  put  into  them.  Yet 
why  should  we  reproach  him,  for  even  the  trifles  that  he  has 
left  us  are  rich  in  most  precious  Danish  poetry,  which  hardly 
anywhere  else  in  Danish  painting  has  such  easy,  living  flow 
as  In  the  long,  fine  penstrokes  of  Lundbye's  multifarious 
drawings. 


A  Lane  at  Vognserup,  by  Peter  Christian  Skovgaard 


Though  the  process  was  not  quite  so  effortless,  one  might 
say  of  Lundbye  that  he  passively  allowed  nature  to  pluck  the 
strings  of  his  poetic  soul.  Skovgaard,  on  the  contrary, 
actively  penetrated  into  nature,  searching  it  with  his  eyes 
in  every  direction.  He  preferred  to  look  for  a  spot,  whereas 
Lundbye  preferred  to  scan  a  region.  Consistently  with  this, 
he  often  missed  the  things  in  nature  which  do  not  strike  the 
eye,  the  things  which  are  in  the  air  and  appeal  to  other 
senses  than  the  visual.     Technically  speaking,  too,  his  com- 


DANMSir   AK'I'   IN   'Illl':   XIX   Cl-ArrRY     305 


Scene  in  the  \'ejle  Valley,  by  Peter  Christian  Skovgaard 

mand  of  the  air  was  weaker  than  his  command  of  the  earth. 
Atmospheric  phenomena  interested  him  very  Httle,  and 
when  he  did  attempt  to  treat  them,  he  did  not  master  them. 
But  everything  that  pertains  to  the  earth,  that  grows  on  the 
earth,  he  knew  inside  and  out,  so  far  as  form  is  concerned,  as 
no  other  Danish  artist  has  known  them. 


Scene  from  Ulvedalene  in  Dyrehaven,  by  Peter  Christian  Skovgaard 


506 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


In  the  great  majority  of  his  pictures  he  showed  nature  at 
the  moment  when  the  sap  was  rising  highest,  at  the  utmost 
expansion  of  the  leaves.  In  most  of  his  pictures,  too,  he 
selected  the  most  beautiful  and  fully-grown  specimens — for 
example,  he  loved  to  paint  the  dome-shaped  beeches  of 
Dyrehaven  in  Copenhagen.  Hence  the  trees  in  his  pictures, 
if  one  observes  them  singly,  often  give  the  impression  of 
mere  repetitions  of  the  same  model.  Some  of  his  pictures 
of  forests  look  more  like  pictures  of  parks.  On  the  whole, 
however,  this  propensity  was  advantageous  to  his  art,  as  it 
infused  into  his  naturalism  a  little  idealism,  without  which 
his  work  would  have  been  devoid  of  temperament.  For  his 
passion  for  vegetation  in  its  greatest  abundance  and  vigor 
was  everywhere  bursting  out  through  the  surface  of  his  art. 
This  is  most  strikingly  evident  in  his  studies,  which  are 
usually  better,  artistically,  than  his  finished  paintings.  Es- 
pecially in  his  larger  paintings  there  was  an  obvious  dis- 
parity between  the  great  scale  of  the  picture  and  the  exces- 


At  the  Tea-table  in  Vejb}',  by  Peter  Christian  Sicovgaard 


DANISH   AR'I'  IN    Ilir.  XIX   CFN'niRY     307 

six'cly  detailed  hrushwork  ^\■itll  which  he  tried  to  i^ci.  his 
effects.  The  \  ei-satility  ol  Ins  talent  (which  also  showed 
itself  in  the  fact  that  he  was  incidentally  a  distiiifjjiiished 
portrait  painter  and  a  no  less  distin^iiisheil  ^enre  paintei^, 
and  was  iinariahly  successful  at  decoratixe  drawinj^)  made 
it  difficult  lor  him  to  restrict  himself  to  any  one  aspect  ol 
a  motif  while  he  was  completing  a  landscape.  None  the 
less,  even  in  the  dryest  of  his  large  pictures,  if  one  stands 
off  at  a  distance  one  recognizes  his  hig,  generous  disposition 
in  the  boldness  and  exuberance  of  the  outlines,  even  though 
at  closer  range  they  disintegrate  into  an  arid  rendering  of 
detail.  In  a  few  of  his  later  pictures,  evidently  under  the 
influence  of  Claude  or  Swanewelt,  he  showed  an  inclination 
to  give  free  rein  to  his  growing  sense  for  the  vast  and  sol- 
emn phases  of  nature.  No  one  worthier  than  he  has  yet 
come  forward  to  carry  on  the  grand  style  which  he  thus 
introduced  into  Danish  landscape  painting. 

Even  though  Kyhn,  in  some  of  his  later  pictures,  strength- 
ened his  landscape  by  supporting  it  on  a  frame  of  big  lines, 
he  did  not  usually  show  any  discrimination  in  his  choice 
of  motifs.  The  superlative  abundance  of  his  painting  is  due 
to  the  very  fact  that  almost  any  kind  of  fragment  of  nature 
was  to  him  a  satisfactory  motif.  His  love  and  his  knowl- 
edge of  nature  were  not  limited  by  the  boundaries  of  Den- 
mark. With  his  rare  faculty  for  entering  into  the  spirit 
of  foreign  scenery,  he  painted  pleasing  landscapes  of  Italy 
and  France,  of  Norway  and  Sweden.  Had  his  hand  been 
equal  to  his  other  attributes,  he  might  have  made  a  Euro- 
pean reputation.  Unfortunately,  he  had  a  real  contempt 
for  mere  technique,  and  consequently,  although  he  was  a 
great  artist,  he  never  became  a  great  painter.  He  was 
constantly  painting  in  little  dabs  where  what  he  needed 
was  bold  strokes,  or  else  using  bold  strokes  where  he  should 
have  let  his  brush  linger  in  order  to  obtain  definition. 

Of  all  the  things  that  he  loved  in  the  course  of  his  long 
life,  in  his  later  years  he  loved  Jutland  the  best.  In  those 
last  years  summer  was  the  season  he  preferred  to  paint, 
which  was  quite  natural,  as  he  followed  in  his  old  age  the 


308 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


1 


Hillside  Near  Horsens,   by  Vilhelm  Kyhn 

example  of  his  juniors  and  completed  his  pictures  outdoors, 
but  on  account  of  his  health  he  could  not  stay  out  during 
the  inclement  seasons.  In  his  youth  he  had  not  submitted 
to  any  such  restrictions.  In  those  days  he  had  been  out 
at  all  seasons  and  all  times  of  day  in  pursuit  of  the  fleeting 
moods  of  nature.     One  can  practically  estimate  Lundbye's 


Summer  Evening,  by  Vilhelm  Kyhn 


DANISH  AKr  IN    rilK  XIX   CI^N'rURY     309 

significance  Ironi  a  single  i)ainting,  and  the  satnc  is  true  of 
Skovgaard;  it  is  otherwise  \\'ith  Kylin.  In  any  single  paint- 
ing of  his  it  is  easier  to  pick  out  his  faults  than  to  appre- 
ciate his  qualities.  One  cannot  appraise  his  greatness  with- 
out considering  his  work  as  a  w  hole.  I  le  hatl  none  of 
Skovgaard's  plastic  sense  of  form,  none  of  Lundhye's 
rhythmic  sense  of  line;  further,  his  talent  as  an  artist  was 
no  more  restricted  or  specialized  than  his  field  as  a  land- 
scape painter.  What  he  had  was  a  strikingly  fresh, 
elemental,  unsophisticated  feeling  for  nature,  of  loo  wide 
a  span  to  be  contained  in  any  one  picture.  It  did,  of  course, 
have  limits — it  was  more  congenial  to  quiet,  gentle  nature 
than  to  wild  and  rugged.  Still,  it  was  much  more  inclu- 
sive than  the  feeling  for  nature  in  any  other  Danish  land- 
scape painter,  and  it  was  also  deeper.  It  was  not,  like 
Lundbye's,  pitched  in  the  key  of  the  songs  and  poems  about 
Denmark  and  modulated  to  their  rhythm;  nor  was  it,  like 
Skovgaard's,  formally  cultivated  by  other  means.  It  was 
primitive  and  deeply  original,  like  no  one's  else. 

The  fourth  of  the  painters  who  brought  landscape  to  its 
flowering  in  Denmark  was  Rump.  He,  too,  was  a  painter 
of  moods,  but  he  had  no  such  range  of  moods  as  Kyhn. 
He  was  more  of  a  virtuoso,  if  the  word  may  be  used  rela- 
tively, considering  the  undeveloped  technique  of  Danish  art 
in  those  days.  He  had  a  marked  color  sense.  In  contrast 
to  Lundbye's  sense  of  line  and  Skovgaard's  sense  of  form. 
Of  the  seasons,  which  he  treated  in  a  well-known  series  of 
paintings,  it  was  spring  which  most  strongly  appealed  to 
his  avid  enjoyment  of  nature.  He  painted  a  few  very 
pretty  but  not  very  wintry  winter  scenes ;  he  painted  a  few 
autumn  scenes,  likewise  very  pretty,  but  rather  subdued ; 
he  had  greater  success  with  summer  sunshine  on  woods  in 
full  leaf.  What  he  best  understood  was  the  budding  forest 
In  springtime,  when  nature  Is  most  lavish  with  balm  for 
men's  souls  and  bodies.  In  his  vernal  scenes  one  inhales 
the  bright  day  over  which  the  woods  have  as  yet  cast  no 
shadow,  the  delicious  newborn  air,  laden  with  fragrance  from 
the  earth  under  the  trees.     One  revels  In  these  delightful 


310 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Spring  Landscape,  by  Gotfred  Rump 

sensations,  because  he,  himself,  has  reveled  in  them,  with 
senses  continually  so  trained  and  sharpened  that  they  had 
become  more  sensitive  than  most  people's  to  such  impres- 
sions. It  is  the  genuineness  of  the  coloring  which  produces 
the  illusion  in  Rump's  pictures  of  this  type.  There  is  some- 
thing of  the  painter-virtuoso  and  something  of  the  sym- 
phony composer  about  his  work,  which  in  a  certain 
way  anticipates  a  much  later  development  of  Danish  land- 
scape. 

Associated  with  these  four  great  discoverers  and  restor- 
ers of  Danish  landscape  there  was  a  little  group  of  artists, 
of  whom  some  had  the  misfortune  to  be  born  a  few  years 
too  late  to  take  their  place  in  the  first  rank  of  the  pioneers, 
while  others  had  the  even  more  deplorable  fate  of  dying 
many  years  too  soon,  long  before  they  could  make  them- 
selves felt.  There  was  the  animal  painter  Dalgas,  who  was 
most  closely  related  to  Skovgaard  and  Lundbye,  and  like 
the  latter  gave  his  life  in  the  war;  he  was  a  man  of  unusual 
talent,  and  if  he  had  lived  longer  would  certainly  have 
freed  his  individuality  from  the  influence  of  his  colleagues 
as  he  had  fortunately  already  emancipated  himself  from  his 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     311 


A  Shepherdess,  by  Carlo   Dalgas 

previous  subservience  to  the  Dutch  traciition.  There  was 
Dreyer,  whose  landscape  sketches  rank  very  high;  his  fresh 
studies  often  disclose  a  wonderful  feeling  for  the  moods  of 
nature,  and  his  full  coloring  recalls  Rousseau,  Francais,  or 
Daubigny.  There  was  Frederik  Krafft,  little  known,  but  the 
painter  of  a  few  pictures  which  testify  to  original  and  inde- 
pendent observation  of  light  effects  in  the  open,  unusual  for 
those  days.  There  was  the  landscape  and  animal  painter, 
I.  D.  Frisch,  also  a  fresh  observer,  and  a  true  artist.  One 
might  mention,  also,  the  marine  painter,  Emanuel  Larsen, 
among  other  reasons  because  he  was  one  of  those  who  died 
too  young.  Of  those  born  a  few  years  too  late,  Kolle  prac- 
tically repeated  the  discoveries  of  the  pioneers,  and  there- 
fore did  not  take  the  place  in  the  first  rank  for  which  his 
attainments  would  have  qualified  him  if  he  had  been  born  a 
little  earlier. 

Vilhelm  Pedersen  occupies  a  unique  position  on  account 
of  his  excellent  illustrations  of  H.  C.  Andersen's  fairy-tales. 
Any  other  contributions,  outside  of  landscape  painting  or  the 
painting  of  every-day  life,  in  the  period,  were  of  little  signifi- 
cance. The  life  of  the  citizens  of  the  capital  wa.s  humorously 


312 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


portrayed  by  the  talented  dilettante,  Fritz  Jiirgensen.  Hein- 
rich  Hansen  devoted  himself  to  architectural  painting;  he 
was  a  fairly  good  painter,  but  rigid  in  his  perspective,  a  vir- 
tuoso in  the  use  of  the  ruler.  Animal  painting  found  few 
votaries.  The  best  flower  painter  was  Ottesen,  whose  Dutch 
manner  bespeaks  more  industry  than  genius;  he  was  entirely 
lacking  in  appreciation  of  the  decorative  quality  of  flowers. 
Nor  were  the  professional  portrait  painters  any  better. 
They  rarely  produced  anything  more  than  a  "good  like- 
ness." 

After  the  abundant  years  that  Danish  art  had  enjoyed 
in  the  fifties  and  the  early  sixties,  there  followed  lean  years 
from  about  1870.  Those  who  had  won  the  great  victories 
rested  on  their  laurels,  if  they  were  not  already  resting  in 
the  grave.  The  Charlottenborg  exhibitions  were  filled  by 
a  crowd  of  epigoni,  none  of  whom  was  capable  of  carrying 
the  development  any  further.  The  man  who  most  nearly 
approached  Kyhn  was  Foss,  who  knew  the  Jutland  coun- 
try intimately,   and  was  a  conscientious  pupil,  but  never  a 


At  the  River  in  Odense,  by  Dankvart  Dreyer 


DANISH  ART  IN    JllE  XIX  CENTURY     313 


At  the  Mouth  of  the  River,  by  Janus  La  Cour 


master.  Thorenfeld,  also  a  painter  of  Jutland,  had  more 
personality,  but  he  never  got  over  the  stammering  and  stut- 
tering stage  in  his  expression.  Of  Skovgaard's  succes- 
sors, Aagaard  may  be  mentioned;  he  had  a  certain  knack 
of  choosing  effective  subjects,  but  his  execution  was  en- 
feebled by  his  diluted  coloring  and  his  finicky  brushwork. 
A  finer  artist  than  Aagaard,  and  more  of  a  nature-lover, 
was  Hans  Friis,  but  his  enthusiasm,  unfortunately,  always 
evaporated  long  before  he  could  bring  his  picture  labori- 
ously to  completion.  Then  there  was  Fritz,  who  had  a 
keen  eye  for  the  majestic  beauty  of  the  beechwoods,  but 
who  handled  his  colors  so  unskilfully  that  they  looked  like 
a  snarl  of  woolen  yarn.  Far  above  these  men  stood  Skov- 
gaard's pupil.  La  Cour,  who  had  a  great  talent  for  form 
and  a  fastidious  taste,  choosing  subjects  that  lent  themselves 
to  strong  lines  and  strong  feelings;  but  he  had  a  rather  cold 
and  reserved  temperament,  passionless  or  at  least  dreading 
to  let  himself  go,  which  hampered  him  in  his  frequent  at- 
tempts to  show  the  violent,  spontaneous  outbursts  of  stormy 


314  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

weather.  On  the  whole,  though,  he  was  an  artist  whose 
careful,  refined,  finished  pictures  always  were  an  ornament 
to  the  exhibitions — which  cannot  be  said  of  many  of  the 
paintings  of  the  period  under  discussion. 

Such  a  period  of  stagnation  as  the  early  seventies  has 
never  been  known  before  or  since  in  Danish  art.  Three- 
quarters  or  more  of  the  painting  had  become  landscape. 
And  what  did  it  amount  to?  What  there  had  been  of  in- 
spiration, or  at  least  of  warmth,  had  sunk  to  tepid  routine. 
Tenseness  had  been  succeeded  by  the  relaxation  of  all  ardor 
and  energy  in  the  treatment  of  nature,  to  which  for  twenty 
years  previous  every  effort  of  Danish  art  had  been  devoted. 
Debility  had  spread  far  and  wide.  Art  had  become  a  leis- 
ure occupation,  a  domestic  pastime,  a  handicraft. 

While  Danish  art  was  in  this  state,  French  art  had  made 
tremendous  strides.  On  the  one  hand,  there  were  the  new 
requirements  for  the  rendering  of  material  objects  imposed 
by  the  cry  for  "realism;"  on  the  other,  there  were  the  fugi- 
tive color  effects,  which  French  artists  felt  bound  to  fix 
still  living  on  their  canvas.  The  term  "impressionism"  was 
already  on  men's  lips.  Both  of  these  new  methods  de- 
manded ability,  especially  in  execution,  of  a  degree  un- 
dreamed of  in  Denmark.  In  France  men  had  attained  the 
necessary  skill  by  various  means,  among  others  by  a 
thorough  study  of  the  old  Spanish  masters,  Ribera,  and, 
particularly,  Velazquez,  "le  peintre  le  plus  peintre  qui  ne  fut 
jamais."  Thus  a  real,  true  art  of  painting  had  grown  up 
in  France  with  the  emphasis  on  carefully  worked-out  color 
schemes,  while  in  Denmark  the  painters  were  still  content 
merely  to  cover  the  canvas  with  colors. 

There  were  some  people  in  Denmark,  however,  even 
before  the  Universal  Exposition  of  1878,  whose  eyes  had 
been  opened  to  the  advantages  to  be  gained  by  young  paint- 
ers from  a  journey  to  Paris.  From  1 877-1 878  on,  the  city 
on  the  Seine  became  the  meeting-place,  as  Rome  had  been 
before.  For  the  second  time  Danish  art  was  regenerated 
by  contact  with  French.  What  David  had  been  to  Eckers- 
berg,  Bonnat  was  to  be  to  Kroyer  and  Tuxen. 


VII 


THE  COLORISTIC  AWAKENING 


A  YEAR,  a  day,  may  be  epoch-making.  On  closer  in- 
spection, however,  the  epoch  which  the  year  or  the 
"day  in  question  appears  to  have  inaugurated  will 
almost  always  be  found  to  have  begun  some  time  before. 
This  is  true  of  the  period  in  Danish  art  of  which  the  year 
1878  is  the  apparent  starting  point.  Tuxen,  Kroyer,  and 
their  contemporaries  were  not  the  first  Danish  painters  of 
that  generation  to  seek  the  fructifying  atmosphere  of 
France.  They  had  a  predecessor  in  Bache,  who  had  been 
in  Paris  in  the  late  sixties.  He  had  acquired  there  a  tech- 
nique which  was  broader  and  more  powerful  than  what  he 
had  learned  from  Marstrand,  and  he  had  also  learned  to 
use  his  palette  so  that  his  art  was  much  more  striking  in  its 
versimilitude  than  the  work  of  older  painters.  He  was 
fond  of  painting  dogs,  cattle,  and  horses,  and  also  did  por- 
traits and  genre  pictures,  all  with  sound  ability  and  at  the 
same  time  with  a  spontaneous  boldness  and  freshness  which, 
we  can  easily  realize,  must  have  been  bewildering  in  that 
period.  He  quickly  met  with  approval,  and  he  strengthened 
his  early  reputation  by  his  really  excellent  painting,  A 
String  of  Horses  in  Front  of  a  Tavern,  one  of  the  best  of 
Danish  genre  paintings.  Soon,  however,  he  became  an 
official  painter,  that  is  to  say,  he  allowed  his  talents  to  be 
made  use  of  by  influential  outsiders  Instead  of  applying  them 
according  to  his  own  judgment.  He  painted  posthumous 
historical  portraits  and  great  heroic  compositions  for  the 
National  Historical  Museum  at  Frederiksborg.     These  all 

315 


316 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  String  of  Horses  in  Front  of  a  Tavern,  by  Otto  Bache 

bear  witness  to  his  good  head  and  his  trained  hand,  and  also 
to  his  patriotic  heart,  especially  manifest  In  The  Soldiers' 
Return  to  Copenhagen  in  1849;  but  such  pictures  as  these, 
on  prescribed  topics,  of  course,  gave  no  indication  of  the 
bright  future  that  awaited  Danish  Art. 

Another  predecessor  of  the  generation  of  the  eighties 
was  Rosenstand.  He  began  by  modeling  himself  after 
Marstrand;  he  had  something  of  his  gift  for  narrative,  but 
lacked  his  humor,  so,  when  he  tried  to  Illustrate  Holberg,  he 
failed.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Bonnat,  and  brought  back  from 
Paris  a  trained  European  technique  and  a  luminous  palette. 
His  coloring  rapidly  lost  its  lustre,  but  he  preserved  his 
brilliant  technique,  and  this  led  him  to  emulate  Marstrand 
in  an  attempt  at  monumental  historical  painting.  Twice  In 
succession  he  was  the  winner  In  competitions  for  the  decora- 
tion of  the  Festival  Hall  in  Copenhagen  University,  and 
the  paintings  he  did  for  it,  despite  their  lack  of  style,  were 
distinguished  by  their  naturalness  and  animation. 

Bache  and  Rosenstand  mark  the  half-way  point  between 
the  old  and  the  new  In  Danish  art.  For  some  years,  Carl 
Bloch  held  a  position  similar  to  theirs.      It  remained  for 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     317 


From  Juel  Lake,  by  Godfied  Christeiiseii 

two  landscape  painters  to  lead  Danish  art  one  step  further 
in  the  purely  pictorial  direction.  The  more  radical  of  these 
was  Godfred  Christensen.  He  painted  a  series  of  striking 
pictures,  some  of  them  quite  pretentious,  in  which  the  col- 
ors had  a  luminous  quality  and  the  summer  a  sunny  radiance 
hitherto  unseen  in  his  native  country,  but  the  swift,  facile 
play  of  the  brush  over  the  surface  of  natural  objects — land, 
water,  and  foliage — left  untouched  what  was  real  and  per- 
manent in  the  subject.  Zacho  may  be  placed  in  the  same 
category:  a  painter  of  more  historical  than  intrinsic  sig- 
nificance. He  made  a  great  sensation  in  1881  with  The 
First  Snowfall  and  A  Jutland  Forest  Scene,  two  big  pictures 
of  solid  and  obvious  merit,  but  he,  too,  lacked  depth  in  his 
attitude  toward  nature.  In  fact,  he  soon  fell  back  into  the 
ranks  of  the  indolent  followers  of  routine.  It  was  not  so 
with  Niss.  He  had  character;  there  was  something  vigor- 
ous and  bluff  about  him  that  suggested  autumn  weather — 
and  autumn  was  the  season  he  most  enjoyed  painting.  At 
first  he  used  to  make  for  the  inland  forest  lakes  of  North 
Sjaelland  in  October,  but  later  some  seafaring  instinct  in  his 
bold  nature  roused  him  to  go  in  search  of  autumn  weather 
at  its  keenest  and  wildest,  on  the  shores  of  the  Danish  seas, 


318 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  First  Snowfall,  by  Christian  Zacho 

or  even  out  on  the  high  seas,  and  from  these  trips  he  brought 
home  studies  of  the  sea  which  were  truer,  saltier,  than  any- 
thing that  the  painters  who  specialized  in  marines  were  in 
the  habit  of  producing.  There  is  nothing  in  the  work  of 
men  like  Blache  or  Carl  Rasmussen  that  can  compare  with 
these  sea-pictures  of  Niss's  later  years,  although  Blache  was 
a  sailor  and  Rasmussen  was  a  great  traveler  and  painted 
interesting  pictures  of  Greenland,  Locher,  who  like  Niss, 
exercised  an  invigorating  influence  on  Danish  art  in  the 
early  eighties,  was  the  only  other  man  of  the  time  who 
showed  any  such  spontaneous — even  crude — ability  to 
transfer  to  canvas  the  freshness  of  nature. 

The  other  members  of  this  circle,  in  which  Rud.  Bissen 
may  also  be  included,  went  no  further.  All  had  more  power 
than  delicacy,  both  in  feeling  and  execution.  For  the  honor 
of  the  profession  they  set  upon  nature  with  their  fists,  and 
often  treated  her  brutally.  None  of  them  could  draw  much 
better  than  was  necessary  for  household  purposes,  but  they 
were  out  to  paint — never  mind  about  drawing  !  Fortunately 
the  leading  figure  painters  were  men  of  far  finer  calibre,  and 
had  acquired — first  as  pupils  of  Bonnat  and  later  through  all 
sorts  of  other  influences,   direct  and  indirect — the   funda- 


DANISH   AR'I'   IN    rili:  XIX    Cl-M  UkV      n') 


Sunflowers,  bv  Thorvald  Xiss 


mentals  of    that    formal    training   which   was    so    woefully 
lacking  in  the  landscape  painting  of  the  time. 

Tuxen  was  the  earliest  to  show  the  good  effects  of  formal 
training.  He  was  intelligent,  tractable,  and  persistently 
diligent.  He  quickly  developed  great  technical  skill,  and 
when  he  astonished  the  artistic  world  of  Copenhagen  with 
his  brilliant  Susanna  in  the  Bath,  in  1879,  he  seemed 
destined  to  great  achievements.  A  treasury  of  precious  pos- 
sibilities appeared  to  stand  open  to  him.  The  curse  that 
lay  on  him  was  that  he  did  not  really  know  what  to  do  with 
all  this  wealth.  With  no  other  focus  for  his  artistic  char- 
acter than  an  interest  in  the  pictorial,  so  many-sided  that  it 
lacked  definite  direction,  he  lavished  his  riches  on  subjects 


320 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Susanna  in  the  Bath,  by  Laurits  Tuxen 

about  which  he  did  not  specially  care.  Finally  he  took  to 
squandering  them  on  enormous  paintings,  crowded  with 
figures,  of  court  festivals  at  home  or  abroad.  He  deserv^es 
far  more  gratitude  for  his  generosity  as  one  of  the  founders 
and  supporters  of  the  free  schools  which  made  it  possible 
for  young  artists  to  partake  of  his  great  hoard  of  knowl- 
edge, for  in  this  way  he  unquestionably  contributed  largely 


DANISH    \R'r  IN   'II  Ii:  XIX   CIlN'rilRY     321 


Italian  Hatmakers,  by  Peter  Severin  Kroyer 


to  the  development  of  Danish  art — just  as  another  aimless 
painter,  Schwartz,  took  part  in  the  education  of  the  younger 
generation  as  a  teacher,  and  did  his  best  work  in  that 
capacity. 

The  man,  who,  more  than  any  other,  had  the  power  to 
inspire  and  fascinate  by  the  example  he  set,  was  the  master, 
Kroyer.  He  was  almost  a  master  when  he  was  only  a 
student  himself!      He  was  almost  a  master  of  character 


322  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

delineation  when,  at  twenty,  he  painted  his  Fishermen  at 
Anchor  in  Hornbsek;  almost  a  master  of  draughtsmanship, 
form,  and  execution  when,  barely  thirty,  after  he  had  studied 
under  Bonnat  and  had  been  influenced  by  Velazquez,  he 
painted  his  Gipsy  Quarter  of  Granada  and  his  Sardine  Pack- 
ing. He  was  at  last  a  true  master-painter  when  he  produced 
the  great  work  of  his  youth,  the  already  classic  Italian  Hat- 
makers,  which  aroused  a  storm  of  both  praise  and  blame  at 
the  Exposition  of  1882. 

With  the  drop  that  hung  threateningly  from  the  nose  of 
the  poor  emaciated  hatter,  Kroyer's  naturalism  had  squeezed 
dry  both  nature  and  naturalness.  It  was  that  same  drop 
that  made  the  cup  of  scandal  overflow  and  accordingly 
loosed  a  flood  of  abuse  against  the  artist,  like  that  which 
France  had  poured  out  upon  Courbet's  famous  Stone- 
breakers.  It  was  truly  remarked  in  Germany  that  the 
two  pictures  had  the  same  relative  significance  in  France 
and  in  Denmark.  Courbet's  picture,  one  should  re- 
member, was  painted  thirty  years  earlier.  So  far  had 
Denmark  been  left  behind  in  the  race  of  European  devel- 
opment, when  Kroyer,  with  one  giant  stride,  made  up  the 
distance. 

He  was  capable  of  still  more.  In  the  next  few  years  he 
overtook  French  art  on  one  of  the  main  paths  of  develop- 
ment which  it  had  been  following  since  Courbet's  day.  Like 
Courbet,  he  took  up  the  most  difficult  problems  of  coloring: 
artificial  light,  and  the  conflict  between  it  and  daylight;  the 
reflection  of  sunlight  on  summer  evenings;  and  the  direct 
light  of  the  sun,  itself,  when  it  is  at  its  highest  and  has 
routed  all  shadows.  This  last  problem,  especially,  Interested 
him  more  and  more.  He  did  not  himself  derive  much  bene- 
fit from  such  experiments,  but  at  that  juncture  they  were  of 
great  advantage  to  our  painting.  One  may  even  criticize 
him  for  going  to  extremes  in  the  attempt  to  banish  all 
shadows  from  his  paintings,  and  for  disregarding  the  danger 
to  which  his  eagerness  for  light  subjected  him  of  breaking 
up  all  his  forms.  He  thus  weakened  many  of  his  later 
paintings.     This  does  not,  of  course,  detract  from  his  his- 


DANISH  ART   IN  TIIK  XIX   Cl'-NinRY     323 


Fishermen  on  the  Beach  at  the  Skaw  a  Summer  Evening,  by  Kroyer 

torical  position  as  the  first  artist  who  consistently  prac- 
tised open  air  painting  in  Denmark. 

Many  of  his  most  popular  works  fall  within  the  wide 
field  of  open  air  painting;  his  summer  evening  pictures  of 
fishermen  on  the  Skaw;  his  summer  day  pictures  of  the  same 
scene  with  children  bathing.  He  was  also  active  in  most 
of  the  other  fields  where  a  painter  can  gather  material 
directly  from  life.  He  painted  genre  pictures  and  interiors 
and  even  flower  pictures,  but  he  was  especially  fond  of 
painting  portraits  and  big  groups.  Geographically,  also, 
his  range  was  inclusive.  He  had  an  atelier  in  Copenhagen, 
another  on  the  Skaw,  a  third  in  Italy,  and  in  his  later  years 
he  often  went  to  Paris  to  rest.  Yet,  in  nearly  all  his  diversi- 
fied work,  it  is  easy  to  recognize  the  common  feature  which 
connects  all  of  them  with  his  personality. 

Born  with  the  most  fortunate  artistic  endowment,  born 
to  triumph  without  any  great  struggle,  from  the  outset 
smiled  on  by  life,  he  remained  a  lover  of  all  that  was  smiling 
in  life.  Lover  of  light  and  hater  of  shadow  as  he  was  in 
life,  he  was  also  in  his  art.      Everything  that  lived  and 


324 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Music  in  the  Studio,  by  Kroyer 

breathed  in  the  air  and  the  light  he  saw  in  its  pictorial  rela- 
tion and  pictorially  beautified  by  the  atmosphere.  This  does 
not  imply  that  he  lacked  appreciation  of  what  was  human. 
In  a  few  of  his  portraits  he  went  further  in  this  respect  than 
one  might  expect,  and  again  in  his  big  groups,  of  which 
Music  in  the  Studio  was  the  first,  not  only  was  the  likeness 
good,  but  the  characterization  was  often  animated.  The 
important  thing  to  Kroyer,  though,  was  always  the  pictorial 
effect.  In  Music  in  the  Studio  one  does  not  so  much  see  the 
figures  as  divine  their  presence  through  the  gathering  clouds 
of  tobacco  smoke  and  dusk.  In  his  picture  of  The  Commit- 
tee for  the  French  Art  Exhibition  the  subject  was  spiced 
for  him  by  the  addition  of  a  difl^icult  lighting  problem,  the 
conflict  between  lamplight  and  daylight;  the  painting  of  The 
Scientific  Society  was  likewise  transformed  by  Kroyer  into 
a  pictorial  problem  requiring  the  utmost  skill,  for  he  painted 
the  scene  in  the  glimmer  of  a  great  number  of  separate 
lights.     When  it  came  to  The  Members  of  the  Exchange, 


DANISH  ARr  IN    THE  XIX  CENTURY     325 


326 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


he  could  not  think  of  any  pictorial  arrangement,  and  there- 
fore his  picture  of  that  body  is  the  least  interesting  picto- 
rially,  although  as  a  collection  of  portraits  it  is  perhaps  the 
soundest  and  strongest  of  the  series.  There  were  dangers 
which  threatened  Kroyer  more  and  more  in  various  ways 
as  time  went  on.  He  was  exposed  to  one  danger  from  the 
very  start  by  his  hand,  which  tempted  him  to  make  a  game 
or  a  form  of  amusement  out  of  his  work.  A  greater  danger 
arose  from  his  light-loving  disposition,  which  tempted  him 
to  deviate  from  the  straight  path  of  the  painter,  especially 
when  he  was  traveling  under  the  southern  sun — as  we  have 
already  pointed  out.  This  was  bad  enough,  but  what  was 
more  serious,  it  made  him  too  volatile  and  fond  of  pleasure 
as  a  man,  and  gave  him  a  tendency  toward  sweetness  and 
sentiment  such  as  we  find,  for  instance,  in  his  painting  of  him- 
self and  his  wife  on  the  shores  of  the  Skaw  on  a  summer 
afternoon.  If  he  had  lived  more  constantly  in  one  place, 
and  had  thereby  got  a  firmer  grasp  of  some  one  kind  of 
subject,    Kroyer   might   have  maintained   even    longer   the 


Will  He  Clear  the  Point?  by  Michael  Aiicher 


DANISH  Akr  IN  Tin-;  \ix  ci:n'iurv    ii? 


The  Sick  Girl,  by  Michael  Ancher 


position  which  he  held  for  a  number  of  years  as  the  leading 
painter  of  his  native  country. 

It  was  certainly  by  means  of  a  permanent  residence  and 
a  firm  grasp  of  one  kind  of  subject  that  some  of  his  best 
contemporaries  attained  their  strength,  notably  those  who 
settled  down  on  the  Skaw.  One  of  the  earliest  and  best 
of  this  group  was  Ancher.  As  a  painter  he  had  a  hard 
road  to  travel,  for  to  start  with  he  had  neither  an  eye  for 
color  nor  a  light  and  easy  hand;  it  was  pertinently  remarked 
of  one  of  his  early  paintings  that  it  looked  as  if  it  had  been 
"painted  in  mittens."  But  he  had  a  marked  gift  for  com- 
position and  a  lively  sense  of  character,  and  thanks  to  these 
he  won  his  first  success,  in  1880,  when  he  exhibited  Will 
He  Clear  the  Point?  What  was  in  those  days  power  and 
breadth  such  as  had  never  been  seen,  no  longer  looks  very 
broad  or  powerful.     Ancher  fortunately  made  great  prog- 


328 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Calm  Summer  Evening  at  the  Skaw,  by  Michael  Ancher 

ress  after  that,  keeping  pace  with  the  times  as  a  first-hand 
observer  of  the  effects  of  atmosphere  or  color.  His  first 
advance  in  this  respect  was  due  to  the  influence  of  his  wife, 
Fru  Anna  Ancher.  Her  work  in  contrast  to  his  open  air 
painting,  was  indoor  painting.  He  followed  the  Skaw 
fishermen  on  their  venturesome  expeditions  away  from 
home;  she  sought  the  women  or  the  old  men  at  their  domes- 
tic occupations.  As  each  of  them  went  his  separate  way 
in  search  of  subjects,  each  also  went  his  separate  way  in 
the  treatment  of  them.  She  was  especially  interested  in  the 
inner  life  of  her  figures,  while  he  was  fond  of  representing 
dramatic  situations.  He  frequently  laid  on  hard  and  heavy; 
she  had  a  naturally  light  touch,  and  whatever  came  from 
her  hand  was  always  perfect  in  its  way.  When  she  was  only 
twenty-two,  she  exhibited  The  Gull-pluckers,  a  painting 
which  is  masterly  both  in  narration  and  in  execution.  The 
old  man  who  here  sits  bent  over  his  work  with  a  quiet  smile, 
had  been  used  by  Ancher  a  few  years  before  as  the  model 
for  his  Laughing  Old  Man.     That  was  solid,  vigorous  paint- 


DANISH  ART   IN    11  IE  XIX   CENTURY     329 


The  Gull-pluckers,  by  Anna  Ancher 

iiig,  close  to  nature,  and  close,  too,  to  Frans  Hals  in  its 
liveliness  and  humor,  Fru  Ancher's  treatment  of  the  old 
man  is  more  subdued  and  more  distinguished.  Ancher 
liked  to  make  his  figures  address  the  spectator;  in  his  work 
there  is  a  whole  gallery  of  figures  who  are  laughing  at  the 
beholder,  talking  to  him,  or  looking  at  him,  Fru  Ancher's 
figures  usually  are  leading  a  life  of  their  own,  unconscious 
of  the  fact  that  they  are  being  painted. 

For  this  reason,  among  others,  her  taste  seems  more 
delicate  than  his.  This  refinement  of  taste,  which  in  its 
higher  development  is  perhaps  a  feminine  instinct  rather 
than  masculine,  in  her  art  finally  encroached  on  things  more 
essential.  Tempted  by  her  delicate  taste  for  color,  she 
elaborated  the  already  rather  banal  modern  tonal  scale  by 
placing  in  juxtaposition  numerous  shades  of  the  same  color, 
and  her  experiments  in  this  direction  seem  to  have  deadened 
her  feeling  for  the  human,  which  was  originally  the  funda- 
mental quality  of  her  work. 

Her  husband's  painting,  in  contrast  to  hers,  has  remained 
emphatically  masculine,  Ancher,  it  seems,  has  more  virility 
than  modern  painters  usually  have.  An  evidence  of  this  is 
his  strong  will,  which  he  shows  not  only  by  the  way  in  which 


330  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

he  constantly  defies  and  frequently  conquers  difficulties,  but 
by  the  pleasure  he  takes  in  putting  himself  to  unnecessary 
trouble,  for  instance  when  he  repeatedly  undertakes  vast 
canvases  with  several,  or  even  many,  life-size  figures.  An- 
other evidence  is  the  fact,  not  altogether  accidental,  that 
almost  his  first  artistic  enthusiasm,  and  certainly  the  one 
that  determined  his  artistic  career,  was  for  such  people  as 
the  Skaw  fishermen.  The  most  explicit  testimony  of  all  is 
his  understanding  of  the  outward  signs  on  these  men  of 
their  manly  strength  and  courage.  Though  Ancher  is  by 
no  means  ignorant  of  the  use  of  style  and  the  various  artifi- 
ces which  produce  monumental  effects  (see  for  example 
his  dignified  full  length  portrait  of  his  wife),  it  is  not  by 
such  means  that  he  so  often  succeeds  in  making  his  fisher- 
men true  monuments  of  manliness.  He  has  simply  empha- 
sized their  manliness  in  accordance  with  his  own  manly 
instinct  and  sympathy,  and  in  so  doing  he  has  not  only 
raised  them  to  the  level  of  heroes,  but  has  at  the  same 
time  brought  out  his  own  character  as  the  man  among 
Danish  painters. 


Old  Houses  at  the  Skaw,  by  Viggo  Johansen 


DANISH  ART  IN  TITF  XIX  CENTURY     331 


The  Children's  Bath,  by  Viggo  Johansen 


VIggo  Johansen,  too,  Is  a  man,  though  of  a  rather  differ- 
ent type:  his  position  in  Danish  art  is  that  of  the  married 
man,  the  man  of  family.  He  began,  as  a  pupil  of  Roed,  with 
a  remarkably  firm  and  sure  treatment  of  form.  It  was  not 
until  much  later  that  he  took  to  travelling.  Yet  he  had  as 
much  share  as  a  good  many  of  the  men  who  had  learned  to 
paint  in  France  In  the  Inauguration  of  the  movement  toward 
a  fresher  and  more  colorful  treatment  than  had  hitherto 
been  usual.  His  effort  in  this  direction  was  put  forth  In  a 
few  big  pictures  of  striking  still  life  subjects.  Johansen's  long 
series  of  pictures  of  his  own  home  life  began  with  A  Bed- 
room Scene  and  The  Young  Mother  as  a  Patient.  In  these 
paintings  his  treatment  of  the  subjects  constantly  varied, 
but  his  emotional  relationship  to  them  was  always  the  same. 
Later  he  went  in  for  portraits,  still  life,  and  landscape,  and 
he  is  one  of  the  figure  painters  by  whose  help  this  last  branch 
was  revivified  as  it  could  never  have  been  if  left  to  the  pro- 
fessional landscape  painters.  Johansen  did  landscapes  of 
the   Skaw,    of   Tidsvilde,    and   especially   of   Dragor,    with 


332 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Evening  Party,  by  Viggo  Johansen 


clear  and  simple  motifs,  but  offering  complicated  problems 
to  him,  because  of  the  stress  he  laid  on  the  phenomena  of 
lighting.  In  handling  such  problems  he  distinguished  him- 
self among  the  very  greatest,  but  it  is  as  a  painter  of  home 
life  that  he  stands  superior  to  all.  At  an  early  stage  he 
transferred  to  his  studio  painting  the  knowledge  he  had 
acquired  in  the  open  air  of  the  effects  of  atmosphere  on 
color,  and  with  his  highly  developed  technique  he  was  able 
to  make  light  and  air  wrap  and  enclose  everything  and 
everybody  In  a  room,  as  they  do  in  reality.  Far  from 
weakening  the  effect  of  life  in  his  interiors,  this  enhanced 
It  and  made  it  more  convincing.  Looking  at  one  of  Johan- 
sen's  interiors,  one  always  has  the  startling  sensation  of 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  bursting  through  the  door  into 
the  privacy  of  his  home.  There  stands  the  mother  by  the 
washstand  in  the  bedroom,  carefully  drying  her  hands,  ab- 
sorbed In  her  contemplation  of  the  little  boy  who  lies  asleep 
in  her  big  bed.  There  she  sits,  in  the  twilight,  by  the  stove, 
telling   stories   to    the   children.      There    are   the   children 


DANISH  Mil   IN    ilU']  XIX  CI'lN'rURY     333 

sitting  round  tlic  tabic  in  the  altcrnoon,  deep  in  tlieir  lessons. 
Here  one  is  an  inach  ertent  witness  of  the  weekly  bath  in  the 
nursery.  Here  one  steps  into  the  intimate  family  circle  on 
Christmas  Eve,  while  the  children  are  dancing  and  singing 
around  the  lighted  tree.  Here,  on  another  afternoon,  one 
has  dropped  in  just  as  the  friends  are  assembled  and  the 
chatter  over  the  toddy  is  as  lively  as  no  one  but  Johansen 
could  make  it.  Or  there  is  a  real  "party"  in  the  house  with 
lots  of  lights  and  silk  dresses  and  white  shirtfronts,  and  it  is 
already  "after  supper,"  so  that  one  feels  a  little  foolish  to 
be  breaking  in  upon  them  all.  Thus  the  artist  has  kept  open 
house  for  every  one,  and  has  given  every  one  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  what  a  good  time  one  can  have  at  home,  if  only 
one  has  the  gift  for  it,  and  the  right  kind  of  heart. 

While  Johansen  was  thus  a  continuator  of  the  distinct- 
ively Danish  tradition  of  intimate  relationship  between  the 
painter  and  his  subject,  and  maintained  that  relationship 
more  closely  than  any  one  else,  he  was  also  an  artistic  inno- 
vator, one  of  the  few  of  his  generation  who  made  the  step 
over  to  impressionism.  There  was  only  one  man  of  that 
generation  who  was  more  Impressionistic  than  he.  That 
was  the  animal  painter,  Phlllpsen.  Few  men  have  had 
such  powers  of  assimilation.  Not  only  did  he  appropriate 
the  discoveries  of  the  French  impressionists,  such  as  the 
decomposition  of  color,  but  also  certain  directly  opposite 
tendencies,  such  as  the  old  Dutch  masters'  feeling  for  the 
effect  of  line.  Despite  all  this,  however  much  he  assimi- 
lated from  abroad,  he  managed  to  remain  so  Danish  In  his 
point  of  view  that  he  sometimes  reminds  one  of  Lundbye, 
although  he  differs  from  Lundbye  In  that  he  Is  an  inferior 
draughtsman  and  a  better  painter.  He  thought  his  four- 
legged  friends  fortunate  In  their  existence  In  God's  free 
world,  or  rather  In  that  good  morsel  of  It  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  Saltholmen.  He  himself  loved  nature,  and  especially 
that  special  place,  where  there  Is  a  wide  sky  and  a  clear  sun 
and  plenty  of  room  for  the  weather.  His  robust  person 
found  Intense  physical  satisfaction  In  these  surroundings; 
this  communicates  itself  to  his  pictures  and  Is  the  underlying 


)34 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Shipping  Cattle,  by  Theodor  Philipsen 


cause  of  their  freshness.  It  could  not,  of  course,  have  com- 
municated Itself  In  default  of  the  proper  means,  but  In  this 
respect  he  was  better  equipped  than  any  one  else.  No  one 
else  could  get  such  Intensity  In  the  light,  such  clearness  In 
the  shadow;  no  one  could  compete  as  he  did  with  the  sun- 
light effects  of  nature  Itself;  In  fact,  with  his  tendency  to 
exaggerate  color,  he  was  rather  Inclined  to  outbid  the  unified 
effects  of  nature.  Thanks  to  such  a  dazzling  yet  always 
harmonious  palette  and  a  feeling  for  country  which  was  In 
no  way  Inferior  to  his  feeling  for  animals,  this  animal 
painter  developed  himself  Into  one  of  the  best  landscape 
painters  that  Denmark  can  claim,  the  best  of  all,  perhaps, 
at  depicting  wind  and  weather. 

Still  more  dazzling,  externally — at  least,  when  he  first 
attracted  attention — was  another  painter  of  animals,  Ther- 
kildsen,  a  very  able  but  rather  matter-of-fact  artist  who  has 
remained  true  to  the  promise  of  his  youth,  and  whose  name 
will  endure  among  those  associated  with  the  colorlstic  re- 
vival in   Danish   art.      Among  these  names  we  may  also 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX   CKN'ITIRY     335 

count  that  of  the  ( Icrniaii-traiticd  Bertha  Wc^rnann,  known 
for  a  scries  ol  accurate  and  life-hke  portraits;  that  of 
Brasen,  who  seriously  devoted  himself  to  almost  every  kind 
of  painting — animals,  genre  painting,  portraits,  and  land- 
scape; of  Schlichting  Carlsen,  whose  spotty  brushwork  gave 
very  Impressionistic  utterance  to  his  vivid  sense  of  the  green 
luxuriance  of  summer.  In  the  same  connection  one  might 
mention  Thiele,  who,  although  older,  shared  the  aims  of  the 
younger  men;  Anna  Petersen,  whose  virile  feeling  for  char- 
acter made  her  for  a  brief  period  one  of  the  strongest  and 
crudest  naturalists  of  the  time;  another  gifted  woman,  Sofie 
Holten,  who  likewise  was  for  a  few  years  a  doughty  cham- 
pion of  the  cause.  In  this  group  of  painters,  who  felt  them- 
selves bound  together  In  the  great  and  Inspiring  task  of 
improving  the  pictorial  side  of  Danish  painting,  we  may 
finally  include  two  artists  whom  it  would  otherwise  be  dan- 
gerous to  classify,  because  In  their  wider  development  they 
became  too  eccentric  to  be  included  In  any  definite  category. 
The  first  Is  Hans  Nik.  Hansen,  whose  first  bold  ventures 
as  a  painter  appeared  in  the  agitated  period  of  the  early 
eighties.  We  refer  especially  to  From  a  Graveyard  and 
The  Woman  on  the  Heath,  paintings  whose  revolutionary 
technique  (using  the  palette  knife  and  laying  the  paint  on 
very  thickly)  no  longer  seems  as  noteworthy  as  it  did  then, 
but  which  have  abiding  value  because  of  the  pathos  they 
attain  in  their  narrative.  This  gifted  artist  never  succeeded 
in  producing  the  great  work  that  was  expected  of  him  as  a 
painter,  but  as  an  illustrator  and  as  an  etcher  he  found  fluent 
and  happy  expression  for  the  wealth  of  romantic  imagination 
which  is  his  most  characteristic  and  personal  gift.  The  col- 
lective impression  one  gets  from  the  illustrations  and  prints 
which  set  forth  his  talent  is  that  of  an  eccentric  and  lyric 
artist  who  would  be  without  a  counterpart  had  it  not  been 
for  the  existence  of  Zahrtmann. 

This  notable  artist  played  a  different  part  In  the  develop- 
ment of  the  color  sense  in  Denmark  from  that  of  most  of  the 
other  leaders.  Whereas  the  others  were  more  or  less  ob- 
jective in  their  coloring,  seeking  to  reproduce  accurately  the 


336 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Mystic  Wedding  in  Pistoja  in  the  Year  1500  Outside  of  S.  Pietro, 
by  Kr.  Zahrtmann 

colors  of  nature  itself,  he  was  emphatically  subjective.  He 
did  not  neglect  the  study  of  natural  coloring,  but  that  was  not 
in  his  mind  an  end  in  itself;  it  was  only  a  means  of  testing 
his  own  inward  and  personal  perception  of  color.  For  in 
contrast  to  all  the  others,  he  had  the  rare  gift  of  color 
imagination,  and  color  imagination  of  a  most  unusual  kind. 
Nature,  by  some  odd  caprice,  had  mixed  something  Oriental 
into  the  spirit  of  this  man  from  Bornholm.  There  was  a 
suggestion  of  the  Orient  in  his  plump  and  impassive  figures; 
there  was  a  strong  Oriental  element  in  his  gorgeous  palette, 
his  revelling  in  sheer  color,  which  in  the  North  in  the  eight- 
ies, neurasthenic  in  its  color  sense,  had  the  effect  of  a  block 
of  stone  from  the  Alhambra  or  a  piece  of  Persian  pottery 
set  down  in  the  midst  of  Royal  Copenhagen  porcelain.  His 
pictures  rarely  lacked  unity  of  tone,  but  this  was  not  because 
he  used  a  single  color  as  medium,  as  the  others  did,  but  be- 
cause he  used  many  pure  colors  in  a  mosaic-like  arrange- 
ment which  when  seen  at  some  little  distance  merged  into  a 


DANISH  AKr  JN  TIIJ-:  XIX  CENTURY     337 


Leonora  Christina  in  Maribo  Convent,  by  Zahrtmann 

single  tone.  The  constancy  with  which  he  maintained  this 
unfamiliar  attitude  toward  the  question  of  color,  despite  the 
prolonged  indignation  of  all  good  people  at  such  obvious 
folly  or  such  Impudent  affectation,  gave  to  Zahrtmann  a 
twofold  influence  on  our  art.  In  the  first  place,  he  had  a 
general  moral  influence,  for  his  example  encouraged  many 
others  to  be  themselves  and  themselves  only.  In  the  second 
place,  he  had  a  specific  influence,  because  his  pictures  enabled 
a  lot  of  decadent  neurasthenic  eyes  to  stand  the  shock  of  a 
strong  dose  of  color,  and  stimulated  the  enjoyment  of  color 
in  our  painting.  His  many  pictures  on  subjects  from  Italy, 
In  which  he  let  his  color  imagination  revel  In  that  bright-hued 


338 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Leonora  Christina  Leaving  the  Prison,  by  Zahrtmann 

country  and  renew  Itself  after  being  shut  up  in  the  studio  and 
spend  itself  in  creative  exertion,  were  especially  effective  as 
propaganda.  It  is  in  any  case  Zahrtmann,  and  not  any  of  the 
men  like  Kroyer,  who  had  the  most  important  effect  on  the 
perception  of  color  among  most  of  those  who  later  attempted 
paintings  of  the  South. 

Even  more  remarkable  than  the  painter  of  this  long  series 
of  Italian  pictures,  in  which  there  gleam  and  flash  and  spar- 
kle and  shine  so  many  colors  and  such  intense  joy  of  life,  was 
the  artist  In  whose  best  paintings,  of  Leonora  Christina,  a 
strange  deep  soul  glimmers  with  a  dull  fire  of  its  own,  casting 
in  the  shade  Its  precious  setting  of  colors.  From  the  time 
when,  in  his  youth,  he  painted  Aspasia,  and  instead  of  paint- 
ing her  beauty  he  painted  the  ruins  of  her  beauty — for  he 
conceived  of  her  bereaved  of  her  lover  and  of  her  son — 
Zahrtmann  read  history  In  a  different  way  from  most  men, 


DANISH   ARF   IN    rill'.   XIX   CJ'.N  lURV     3.^9 


The  Death  of  Queen  Sofie  Amalie,  by  Zahrtmann 


with  more  fancy  and  more  vision.  It  was  the  same  with  the 
story  of  Christian  IV's  unfortunate  daughter.  His  concep- 
tion of  that  sublime  figure  was  founded  far  more  on  a  naive 
emotional  sympathy  for  a  spirit  such  as  hers  than  upon  any 
rational  understanding  of  her  time  or  her  history.  He  drew 
on  the  period  for  whatever  appealed  to  his  eye  in  the  way 
of  costumes,  furniture,  and  other  accessories,  but  he  made  no 
attempt  at  historical  accuracy.  Perhaps  it  was  just  because 
he  knew  a  great  deal  about  such  things  that  he  frequently 
took  liberties  with  them.  He  liked  to  take  liberties,  and 
was  not  above  coquetting  with  his  reputation  for  being — and 
his  right  to  be — unlike  every  one  else.    Besides,  he  liked  to 


340 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  the  Organist  Mathison-Hansen,  by  August  Jerndorff 


paint  anything  that  made  good  people  wonder  whether  it 
was  in  jest  or  in  earnest;  he  steered  close  to  parody  and  did 
not  shun  even  burlesque.  ,  His  eye  found  equal  satisfaction 
in  things  of  the  most  contrasting  natures.  He  loved  painting 
flowers,  but  he  also  loved  painting  boils  as  in  his  Job.  His 
enthusiasm  was  the  real  secret  of  his  art,  lack  of  restraint 
its  most  profound  characteristic.  He  revelled  in  exuberant 
bodies,  exuberant  lines,  exuberant  light  effects,  colors,  mate- 
rials. That  is  merely  the  outward  exuberance.  The  inward 
exuberance,  the  pathos,  such  as  we  see,  for  instance,  in  his 
pictures  of  Leonora  Christina,  depends  no  less  on  exuber- 
ance of  heart  than  on  exuberance  of  eye  and  senses.  Added 
to  this,  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  positively  glutton- 
ous energy  and  capacity  for  work.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
that  from  his  pictures,  at  their  best  and  strongest,  there 


DANISH  AKr  IN  rill-:  xi\  ci:n'iuky    341 

issued  upon  Danish  art  a  hot  and  steaming  breath  such  as 
had  never  before  been  known.  It  came  from  a  man  who  was 
boiling  over. 

It  is  easier  to  lind  any  number  of  men  who  were  his  oppo- 
sites  than  to  find  one  who  registered  a  temperature  approach- 
ing his.  One  can  name  Jerndorff,  who  offers  a  contrast  to 
Zahrtmann  in  that  he  had  neither  the  courage  nor  the  re- 
sources essential  to  a  man  who  wishes  to  paint  only  what 
he  likes.  Especially  in  his  later  years,  Jerndorff  became  one 
of  those  whom  the  authorities  preferred  to  employ,  and  em- 
ployment on  official  portraits,  painted  to  order,  unfortu- 
nately monopolized  one  of  his  many  talents  and  limited  the 
activity  of  the  others.  If  one  holds  him  up  in  opposition 
to  Zahrtmann  in  the  matter  of  warmth,  that  does  not  mean 
that  his  work  was  devoid  of  temperament.  Only  he  had  an 
entirely  different  temperament,  one  which  was  as  restrained 
and  delicate  as  Zahrtmann's  was  unmanageably  violent. 
Caution,  in  his  gentle  character,  was  so  pervasive  that  it 
overflowed  everything  that  came  to  his  hand.  There  was 
something  pious  and  resigned  in  his  nature  which  made  duty 
a  pleasure  to  him,  and  from  his  perfectly  honest,  soberly 
veracious  and  thorough  portraits  there  never  breathed  the 


View  Over  the  Bay  at  B'astad,  by  August  Jerndorflr 


342 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Mermaid,  by  Jerndorff,  Drawing  fc 
the  Pictorial  Work  "Troldtoj" 


sigh  of  the  dreamer, 
whose  presence  one 
sometimes  suspects 
behind  his  land- 
scapes, but  whom 
one  would  never 
really  know  unless 
one  were  familiar 
with  his  drawings. 
It  is  through  his 
Troldtoj  and  his  il- 
lustrations of  folk 
stories  and  folk 
songs  that  one  rec- 
ognizes in  Jerndorff 
an  artistwith  a  capa- 
city for  enthusiasm 
and  imagination,  not 
to  mention  his  vigorous  decorative  sense,  which  makes  one 
deplore  his  almost  exclusive  devotion  to  portrait  painting. 
Jerndorff  was  conscientious  and  competent  as  a  colorist, 
but  he  was  not  one  of  those  who  showed  genius  in  this  respect. 
As  a  draughtsman,  however,  he  was  much  more  modern 
than  the  painters  who  maintained  a  closer  relationship  with 
the  old  Danish  masters  and  preserved  certain  of  their  best 
features:  a  certain  lovable  quality  in  their  treatment,  a 
tenderness  for  the  gentler  side  of  life  together  with  a  dis- 
taste for  the  bitter,  and  an  affectionate  attention  to  detail. 
These  traits  persist  in  the  work  of  such  landscape  painters  as 
the  refined  and  noble  Kabell,  such  figure  painters  as  Haslund, 
The  latter  at  times  retained  something  of  Roed's  coloring, 
and  no  one  can  make  much  sensation  in  an  exhibition  by 
such  means  in  our  day.  Yet  whether  he  painted  landscapes 
or  animals,  portraits  or  genre  pictures,  he  often  attracted 
those  who  were  sensitive  to  the  gentle  appeal  to  the  heart 
which  spoke  most  eloquently  from  his  pictures  of  child  life. 
The  same  kindly  appeal,  sometimes  more  movingly 
phrased,  sometimes,  one  must  admit,  with  a  tone  of  senti- 


DANISH   Akr   IN    l\\\\   XIX   CI'A'TURY     343 

mentality,  was  repeated  by  Carl  'J'h(3nisen.  lie  preferred 
to  deal  with  the  past  that  is  recent  enough  to  have  survivors 
at  the  present  day,  and  therefore  lingered  over  the  old-fash- 
ioned Danish  parsonages,  with  their  summer  holidays  and 
their  winter  life  which  he  depicted,  especially  in  a  series  of 
drawings,  with  great  fidelity  to  his  characters  and  to  the  sur- 
roundings that  moulded  them.  Of  the  other  "narrative" 
painters  of  the  same  generation,  Helsted  was  a  penetrating 
psychologist,  and  as  much  may  be  said  of  Engelsted.  Hel- 
sted painted  comic  genre  pictures  of  Italy  half  or  wholly 
satiric;  very  entertaining,  but  rather  too  large,  pictures  of 
bourgeois  life,  such  as  The  Town  Council  and  A  Deputa- 
tion; and,  finally,  very  serious-minded  religious  pictures 
whose  effectiveness  is  greatly  reduced  by  their  dry  and  mea- 
gre technique.  Engelsted,  who  began  very  promisingly  with 
Copenhagen  genre  pictures,  had  difficulty  later  in  finding  his 
field  and  his  form.     A  third,   Irminger,   managed  better. 


Concert  in  the  Studio,  by  Otto  Haslund 


344 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Deputation,  by  Axel  Helsted 


although  he  also  tried  his  hand  at  every  kind  of  painting, 
despite  his  very  limited  command  of  artistic  means.  In  his 
early  years  he  painted  dragoons;  later,  beggars,  cripples, 
and  palsied  people;  then,  scenes  from  a  hospital  for  sick 
children;  then  he  suddenly  surprised  the  public  by  becoming 
an  enthusiastic  painter  of  healthy  children  and  fresh  young 
women.  He  was  always  a  successful  narrator,  but  his  pic- 
tures were  frequently  tinged  with  sentimentality.  His  most 
virile  work  is  in  a  few  portraits  which  he  has  completed  in 
recent  years.  There  is  nothing  of  the  subjective  warmth 
that  pervades  the  work  of  Carl  Thomson  and,  still  more,  of 
Irminger,  in  the  pathetic  or  humorous  pictures  of  Frants  and 
Erik  Henningsen.  Among  the  many  distinguished  prose 
artists  and  the  smaller  number  of  poets  who  have  contrib- 
uted to  Danish  art,  these  two  seem  like  a  pair  of  clever  jour- 
nalists. Their  role  has  been  that  of  brisk  artistic  reporters 
in  the  Danish  capital.  It  is  all  the  more  natural  to  think  of 
them  as  wielding  the  pen  instead  of  the  brush,  because  they 
both  have  done  a  great  deal  of  pen-drawing,  and  even  with 
the  brush  their  work  has  been  drawing  rather  than  painting. 


DANISH   ART   IN    rill',   XIX   CIA'TUkV 


345 


III  :i  (.liltcrciit,  more  purely  satiric  spirit,  and  in  the  iiiipre- 
teiitious  loian  of  mere  iilustiMtions,  the  lile  ol  the  capital 
has  been  portrayetl  by  two  cle\er  draughtsmen,  Alfred 
Schmidt  and  I'hics,  and,  somewhat  earlier,  also  by  rcgncr, 
who  was  an  excellent  illustrator  of  Holberg  but  rose  superior 
to  this  field  and  branched  out  into  all  kinds  of  decorativ^e 
drawing.  As  has  already  been  suggested,  the  life  of  Copen- 
hagen streets  has  for  the  most  part  offered  very  little  attrac- 
tion to  the  more  recent  Danish  painters.  The  same  is  true 
of  family  life  indoors,  which  so  often  supplied  the  earlier 
artists  with  excellent  subjects  for  paintings  with  numerous 


Interior  with  Figure,  by  Carl  Holsoe 


346  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

figures.  In  place  of  these,  interiors  with  only  a  single  figure, 
or  with  no  figures  at  all,  have  become  usual.  Among  those 
who  have  painted  such  interiors  was  P.  A.  Schou,  who 
brought  back  from  France  an  unusually  delicate  and  highly- 
trained  color  sense;  another  was  Achen,  who  also  produced 
sound  and  capable  work  in  other  fields,  such  as  landscape  and 
portrait  painting.  Then  there  is  listed,  whose  brushwork  is 
rather  slight  and  insignificant,  but  who  has  much  delicacy  of 
coloring  as  a  painter  and  great  skill  as  a  color-etcher.  Then 
again,  there  are  the  brothers  Holsoe,  who  are  most  metic- 
ulous in  their  rendering  of  old  furniture  and  of  the  subtle- 
ties of  close  indoor  atmosphere.  Karl  Jensen  is  an  artist  of 
distinction  who  has  painted  a  few  landscapes  of  high  merit, 
but  has  distinguished  himself  chiefly  as  one  of  the  few  who 
has  cultivated  interior  architectural  painting  from  the  purely 
pictorial  point  of  view,  and  has  not  devoted  himself  too 
ardently  to  ruler  and  compass  and  problems  of  perspective. 
The  special  and  supreme  representative  of  interior  paint- 
ing, however,  in  recent  Danish  art,  was  Vilhelm  Hammers- 
hoi,  who  unfortunately  died  prematurely.  Even  in  a  few 
imaginative  pictures  by  this  remarkable  artist  the  space  and 
atmosphere  behind  the  frame  is  not  more  densely  filled  than 
in  his  interiors  with  the  mist  which  shut  him  off  from  life 
and  made  him  see  everything  toned  down  to  various  shades 
of  grey.  Unquestionably  his  eyesight  was  affected  by  a  color 
neurasthenia,  which  took  the  form  of  a  distaste  for  pure 
color.  But  a  peculiarity  of  eyesight  would  scarcely  have 
contributed  such  a  spiritual  quality  if  it  had  been  merely  a 
matter  of  taste,  and  not  an  expression  of  his  soul.  Deeply 
ingrained  in  his  nature  was  an  aristocratic,  aloof,  solitary 
attitude  toward  life,  a  dread  of  everything  more  luxuriant 
than  the  simplest  and  most  Spartan  existence,  which  he  him- 
self lived  in  his  own  quiet  rooms,  rooms  that,  like  a  Northern 
counterpart  of  Des  Esseintes,  he  decorated  in  the  few  tones 
which  could  supply  the  only  color  harmony  his  sensitive 
nerves  could  bear.  Through  these  rooms  a  silent  little 
woman  occasionally  passed.  She  was  allowed  there  because 
her  dark  dress  made  such  a  good  contrast  to  the  walls  and 


DANISM  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     347 


Interior  with  Figure,  by  Vilhelm  Hammershoi 

doors.  The  same  function  was  fulfilled  here  and  there  by  a 
single  mahogany  frame,  an  old  escritoire,  an  old  cupboard 
or  table.  It  is  in  a  special  sense,  and  only  for  lack  of  a  better 
word,  that  one  speaks  of  "contrast"  between  colors  in  Ham- 
mershoi's  work.  Into  the  play  of  grey  and  white  tones  which 
form  the  dominant  harmony  of  his  pictures,  other  colors 
ventured  shyly  and  only  in  small  fragments;  Hammershoi's 
brush,  always  tentative  and  hesitating,  was  never  more 
disspirited  than  when  called  upon  to  apply  such  a  particle  of 
color  to  his  canvas.    When  the  color  was  at  last  actually  on 


343 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  a  Young  Girl,  by  Vilhelm  Hammershoi 


the  canvas — one  recalls,  for  instance,  a  yellow  bedpost,  won- 
deringly  and  apologetically  intruding  itself  upon  the  unani- 
mously grey  and  whitish  tones  of  a  simple  little  interior — it 
seemed  to  be  still  trembling  from  some  powerful  agitation, 
and  in  fact  it  was  trembling  in  the  most  agitated  mind,  or  at 
least  in  the  most  peculiarly  sensitive  soul,  in  all  Danish  art. 
Interior  painting,  however,  was  not  Hammershoi's  only 
field.  In  his  youth  he  gave  vent  to  his  mal  de  Steele  in  a 
Job's  Complaint.  Later  in  Artemis  he  found  expression  for 
the  continuance  of  his  suffering,  and  for  his  yearning  for 
beauty  and  his  somnambulistic  longing  for  a   remote   and 


DANISH  ARi'  IN  riii<:  xix  ci:ntury    349 

misty  hind  ol  ilrcaiiis.  Im-oiii  (lie  time  when,  still  very  young, 
he  painted  the  sorrow  I  ul  picture  ol  his  sister,  he  used  portrait 
painting  as  a  means  of  relief  for  his  own  feelings,  and  later 
he  uttered  the  melancholy  of  his  soul  in  landscapes  with  great 
sweeping  Hnes  uiuier  \ast  grey  skies,  or  else  in  the  heavy 
grey  masses  ol  heautilul  old  architecture,  whose  sub- 
dued aspect,  like  his  own  subtlued  art,  is  a  silent  protest 
against  all  the  glaring  and  staring  bad  taste  of  modern 
times. 

There  is  nothing  un-Danish  about  Hammershoi,  in  fact 
it  is  easy  to  recognize  something  genuinely  Danish  in  his 
sadness,  his  renunciation  of  the  world,  the  melancholy  and 
weariness  of  his  nature.  But  in  the  perception  of  beauty 
neither  Danish  painting  nor  Danish  poetry  has  ever  offered 
anything  like  his  faint  and  ailing  soulfulness.  Danish  liter- 
ary art  in  its  highest  achievement  has  been  able  to  vie  with 
Danish  painting;  in  fact  the  greatest  master  of  language, 
J.  P.  Jacobsen,  produced  pictorial  effects  with  words  before 
the  painters  had  attained  any  corresponding  success  with 
colors,  and  in  so  doing  he  exercised  an  undoubted  influence 
on  both  the  older  and  the  younger  painters.  The  influence 
of  his  prose  can  best  be  seen  in  Zahrtmann,  of  his  poems  in 
Julius  Paulsen.  He  was  one  of  many  who  sowed  seed  in 
the  latter's  extraordinarily  fertile  mind.  Paulsen's  early 
work  reminds  us  of  Vermehren,  his  work  from  a  little  later 
period  of  Viggo  Johansen,  from  a  little  later  still,  especially 
in  his  representation  of  the  female  nude,  of  Henner  or  his 
master,  Rembrandt,  who  maintained  the  strongest  hold  of 
all  on  Paulsen's  mind.  This  artist,  when  routine  does  not 
spoil  his  efforts,  has  the  most  masterly  control  over  a  won- 
derful instrument  of  color,  with  a  tone  which,  not  unlike 
Rembrandt's,  sounds  plaintively  In  the  bass,  and  in  the  treble, 
again  like  Rembrandt's,  rings  out  exultingly  in  the  light  as 
though  released  from  prison.  The  dramatic  effects  In  Paul- 
sen's work  are  due  to  his  dramatic  treatment  of  light  and 
shade.  When  he  has  attempted  dramatic  effects  by  the  ap- 
plication of  more  palpable  methods,  he  has  either  partly  or 
entirely  failed. 


350 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


5T~t^\J?^  «j««;,vif,pp?r?w;; 


From  the  Town  of  Rye,  by  Julius  Paulsen 


This  peculiar  sense  of  the  dramatic  relation  between  light 
anci  shade  has  been  of  great  advantage  to  him  as  an  interior 
painter.  It  has  enabled  him  to  imbue  commonplace  subjects 
with  great  pictorial  interest.  The  same  thing  applies  to  the 
best  of  his  portraits,  in  which  he  has  succeeded  in  combining 
his  pictorial  power  with  an  unusual  accuracy  and  firmness 
of  characterization,  whereas  in  his  smaller  and  also  in 
several  of  his  larger  group  pictures  the  pictorial-musical 
quality  has  often  asserted  itself  to  a  greater  degree  than  was 
beneficial  to  the  characterization.  With  due  respect  for  the 
great  tasks  which  this  artist  has  set  himself,  to  which  he  has 
devoted  more  energy  than  one  would  think  his  gentle  nature 
could  possess,  one  cannot  help  preferring  what  seems  to  have 
been  to  him  a  sort  of  recreation,  the  landscapes  which  are 
the  purest  expression  of  his  inmost  longings  and  aspirations. 

These  landscapes  are  almost  exclusively  pictorial  in  form. 
There  are  a  few,  such  as  The  Two  Oaks,  which  may  seem 
to  Jiave  been  chosen  with  an  eye  to  an  effective  motif,  but 
otherwise  they  are  entirely  devoid  of  composition  or  deco- 


DANISH  ARl   IN    11  li:   XIX   CKNrURV     331 


Evening,  by  Julius  Paulsen 


rative  effect  of  line.  One  landscape  may  have  a  look  of 
Jutland  in  contrast  to  another  which  suggests  Sjaelland,  but 
what  interests  him  most  is  the  times  of  day  when  the  indi- 
vidual in  nature  is  dissolved  and  merged  into  those  unities 
to  which  men  have  given  the  name  of  moods.  He  paints 
memory  pictures  of  dusk,  of  evening,  of  night,  almost  devoid 
of  form,  almost  purely  color,  and  in  these  nocturnes  he  has 
often  attained  a  power  of  expressing  moods  that  compares 
in  poetic  intensity  with  the  most  beautiful  of  Jacobsen's 
lyrics. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  poetry  of  the  Danish  summer 
evenings  and  summer  nights  has  found  so  few  other 
exponents  since  Sonne's  time.  For  a  few  years  the  attempt 
was  successfully  made  by  N.  V.  Dorph,  in  whose  paint- 
ings, unlike  Paulsen's,  the  effect  of  the  mood  was  height- 
ened by  the  strong  simple  lines  of  the  landscape,  as  well 
as  by  the  pervading  blue  tone,  which  rarely  has  been  more 
successfully  achieved  than  by  this  painter.  In  more 
recent  years  Dorph  has  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  portrait- 
painting  and  evidently  found  more  satisfaction  in  apply- 
ing his  ripening  intelligence  and  education  to  this  purpose 


352 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

mm 


Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Mother,  by  N.  V.  Dorph 

than  in  living  on  the  remnants  of  his  youthful  enthusiasm 
for  nature. 

Of  the  painters  so  far  mentioned  In  this  chapter  the  great 
majority  were  born  In  the  capital  or  In  provincial  towns, 
only  a  very  few  In  the  country;  hardly  more  than  one  was 
really  a  peasant  by  birth.  Without  doubt  this  distribution 
partly  explains  why  the  representation  of  peasant  life  Is 
so  rarely  found  In  the  work  of  these  men.  What  the 
period  did  produce  of  any  real  significance  In  this  field  is 


DANISM   ARI'   IN    TllM  XIX   CllN'IUKY     353 

prctloiiiinaiitly,  in  I  act  almost  exclusively,  due  to  the  activity 
of  a  few  painters  of  peasant  stock.  One  of  these,  R.  Chris- 
tiansen, who  is  incidentally  a  good  animal  painter,  has  re- 
peatedly set  forth  a  view  from  above  of  the  life  of  the  prov- 
inces or  of  the  country  districts,  and  in  his  own  peculiar 
form,  half  drawn  and  half  painted,  has  shown  its  (juaiiit 
or  its  comic  side,  sometimes  with  keen  good  sense,  sometimes 
with  robust  humor.  The  other  peasant-born  painters  of 
peasant  life  of  the  same  generation  have  been  kept  as  free 
from  caricature  by  their  deep  sympathy  for  country  life  as 
they  have  from  false  idealization  by  their  Intimate  knowledge 
of  it.  Thus  Brendekilde,  in  his  early  years,  painted  a  little  set 
of  pictures  of  peasants  which  in  psychological  insight,  as  well 
as  in  pictorial  value,  stood  high  among  the  pictures  of 
Danish  popular  life  at  that  period.  Mols,  also,  has  a  deep  af- 
fection for  the  country  and  the  society  from  which  he  springs. 
He  has  a  tender  heart,  and  In  his  treatment  of  the  rough  Jut- 
land heath  or  the  wild  West  Jutland  coast  there  is  a  large  sym- 
pathy, sometimes  touched  with  sentimentality,  for  the  living 
creatures,  human  and  especially  animal,  that  suffer  from  the 
harsh  climate.  Bjerre,  too,  a  somewhat  younger  artist,  has 
a  deep-rooted  feeling  for  his  native  place,  the  Ill-omened 
coast  of  Harboore,  which  lies  like  a  churchyard  wall  round 
the  grave-strewn  sea.  Unlike  Mols,  he  has  an  Impediment 
In  his  artistic  expression,  now  groping  for  a  word,  now  em- 
phatically concise,  so  that  his  utterance  resembles  that  of 
the  people  he  describes.  It  Is  perhaps  this  very  taciturnity 
and  artlessness  of  expression  which  make  his  presentation 
of  the  pious  resignation  of  the  assembled  Harboore  folk  In 
the  face  of  God  and  destiny  so  extraordinarily  forceful  and 
gripping. 

This  same  artlessness  with  the  addition  of  a  certain 
awkwardness  of  expression  Is  responsible  for  a  great  deal 
of  the  primitive  effects  of  Ring's  first  pictures.  Profoundly 
natural,  he  was  elementary  In  his  emotion,  which  was  simply 
a  family  feeling  for  the  locality  In  which  he  lived  and  Its  In- 
habitants; elementary  also  In  his  Intelligence,  In  so  far  as 
he  treated  things  plctorlally  without  any  deeper  thought 


354 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Beggar  Children  Outside  a  Farmhouse,  by  Lauiitz  Rii 


about  them ;  elementary  likewise  in  his  artistic  point  of  view, 
as  he  had  an  eye  for  the  whole  rather  than  for  detail,  in 
which  respect  he  often  offended  by  defective  drawing.  He 
had  great  simplicity  of  character,  so  that  simple  expression 
was  the  only  kind  that  came  natural  to  him.  There  is  a 
difference,  of  course,  between  simple  expression  and  the  sim- 
plified expression  that  Ring  used  later.  A  simplified  expres- 
sion is  a  cultivated,  conscious  abstraction  from  the  complex. 
Complicated  natures  find  this  difficult,  so  it  is  rarely  quite 


DANISH    .\\<\'   IN    11  ll'!   XIX   CT'-N  rURV     355 


Spring,  by  Lauritz  Ring 

natural.  Ring,  however,  being  genuinely  primitive,  con- 
trived to  do  It  quite  easily  after  a  brief  contact  with  artistic 
education,  and  the  simplified  expression  of  his  later  pictures 
therefore  seems  no  less  natural  than  the  simple  expression  of 
the  earlier  ones.  In  the  picture  of  two  young  girls  In  a  peas- 
ant's garden  in  the  springtime  or  In  the  picture  of  a  woman 
standing  In  a  doorway,  despite  all  the  mastery  of  style  and 
the  sophistication,  there  is  the  same  touching  simplicity  as 
In  The  Christmas  Visit,  The  Shoemaker,  or  other  pictures 
which  Ring  painted  In  the  years  of  his  unspoiled  Innocence. 


356  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

One  can  therefore  say  that,  viewed  in  its  larger  lines,  his 
work  is  uniform,  although  he  did  have  "periods"  not  only 
in  style  but  in  color — for  instance,  one  when  the  dominant 
tone  in  his  landscapes  was  grey,  and  other  when  it  was 
usually  blue.  This  last  change  in  his  coloring  was  unques- 
tionably the  result  of  a  change  in  his  outlook  on  life,  which 
became  brighter  and  milder  as  the  years  went  by.  Yet 
whether  he  painted  grey  or  blue,  whether  life  looked  dark 
to  him  or  shining,  his  relation  to  that  part  of  life  which  he 
chose  to  depict  was  one  of  the  most  intensely  sincere  and  in- 
timate that  has  ever  existed  in  Danish  art.  This  relationship 
resulted  in  such  complete  understanding  that  it  seems  as  if 
no  one  else  had  properly  portrayed  the  Sjifilland  peasantry. 
Ring's  art  has  effaced  all  earlier  representations  of  every- 
thing minute  or  small  of  stature,  indoors  or  under  the  open 
sky,  which  a  Sja?lland  country  town  has  to  offer,  and  has 
established  a  version  which  for  the  present  is  ultimate,  by 
the  simple  method  of  seeking  the  truth,  and  telling  the  truth, 
which  moves  him  deeply.  The  SjasUand  town  with  the  bare 
country  round  it  was  well  known  before  this  time  but  it  was  re- 
garded as  a  place  which  men  fled  from  because  of  its  loneliness 
and  boredom.  Ring  has  taught  us  that  life  here,  as  every- 
where, has  its  poetry  and  nature  its  beauties.  Among  these 
is  a  scale  of  a  few  delicate  and  exquisite  grey  tones,  peculi- 
arly appropriate  to  his  own  temperament,  a  beauty  that  com- 
pares with  many  of  the  sights  that  people  go  far  to  see, 
though  this  lies  right  on  the  beaten  track.  Out  on  the  high- 
ways and  byways,  literally  speaking.  Ring  has  found  beauty. 
The  road  that  runs  through  so  many  of  his  pictures  might 
be  taken  as  a  clue  to  their  significance,  almost  as  a  symbol 
of  his  art. 

Ring  has  in  Hans  Knudsen  a  follower  who  has  sometimes 
gone  even  further  in  the  quest  for  bare  landscape  motifs. 
A  few  others  among  the  younger  men  have  likewise  attached 
themselves  to  the  older  painters.  There  is  a  reminiscence 
of  Zahrtmann  (whose  wider  influence  will  be  discussed  In 
the  next  chapter)  In  Wilhjelm's  Italian  pictures.  There  Is 
an  occasional  memory  of  Johansen's  landscapes  In  the  work 


DANISH  ART  IN    11  lis  XIX   CI<:N'I'URY     357 

of  Gottschack,  who  died  young,  a  sort  of  modern  Dreyer, 
a  clever  sketcher  of  landscapes  and  an  excellent  colorist.  Ole 
Pederson,  a  landscape  and  animal  painter  who  likewise  died 
young,  recalls  Philipsen.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  in- 
Huences  that  affected  certain  others  of  the  younger  natural- 
istic painters.  This  applies  to  Seligmann,  a  man  of  rather 
scattering  talents,  who  painted  a  little  of  everything — a  few 
notable  interiors,  such  as  A  Sunday  in  the  Thorvaldsen 
Museum,  a  few  fine  portraits,  clever  landscapes  and  archi- 
tectural pictures,  but  also  a  few  failures,  notably  several 
historical  pictures.  It  applies  equally  to  the  lyrically  in- 
clined nature  and  genre  painter  Rud.  Petersen;  to  the 
robust  landscape  painter  Hans  Dall;  to  the  marine  painter 
Thorolf  Petersen,  who  finally  has  gone  over  to  scene-paint- 
ing; to  Schlichtkrull,  a  sound  portrait  and  landscape  painter; 
to  Repholtz,  who  in  his  latter  years  has  made  a  success  in 
black-and-white  and  lithography;  to  Frydensberg,  who  for 
many  years  has  struggled  hard  to  establish  his  scheme  of 
coloring;  to  Luplau  Jansen,  who  has  been  rather  variable 
in  his  manner,  but  in  his  genre  painting  Is  always  virile  and 
pleasing;  to  Knud  Larsen,  who  has  gradually  obtained  offi- 
cial recognition  as  the  sound  and  able  portrait  painter  of 
good  society;  and  to  many  others  who  have  made  names  for 
themselves  or  at  least  have  got  themselves  talked  about  a 
great  deal.  Among  these  should  be  mentioned  Henrik  Jes- 
persen,  whose  able  and  daring,  half-scientific  attempts  to 
paint  the  sun  and  reproduce  not  merely  its  dazzling  but  Its 
blinding  effect  on  the  eye,  by  causing  the  colors  of  the  "sun- 
spots"  to  mix  on  the  retina,  has  In  a  way  marked  the  extreme 
limit  of  the  effort  of  naturalistic  art  to  produce  color  illusions 
that  can  compete  with  nature  itself  and  break  down  the  dis- 
tinction between  nature  and  art.  One  could  hardly  go  fur- 
ther In  the  direction  of  deceiving  the  eye.  Yet  the  problem 
of  art  is  not  to  deceive  the  eye,  but  to  satisfy  the  senses  and 
the  spirit  with  beauty,  and  just  as  naturalism  was  celebrating 
its  greatest  triumphs  of  colorlstic  illusion,  spirits  were  begin- 
ning In  many  places  to  crave  some  nobler  form  of  artistic 
enjoyment. 


358  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  reaction  against  naturalism  In  Denmark  dates  as  far 
back  as  1890  or,  if  one  prefers,  1891,  the  year  of  the  first 
"Free  Exhibition,"  in  which  the  new  movements  were  fav- 
ored, whereas  in  the  official  exhibition  at  Charlottenborg 
there  had  been  discrimination  against  them.  From  about 
that  time  there  arose  a  succession  of  painters  who  had  been 
educated  as  naturalists  and.  In  full  possession  of  all  the  pic- 
torial expedients,  foreswore  all  profit  from  that  source  In 
the  hope  and  the  belief  that  by  using  the  primitive  methods 
of  the  painters  of  old  they  might  attain  or  at  least  approach 
the  artistic  standards  of  the  great  men  of  the  past. 


VIII 

THE  QUEST  OF  STYLE  AND  RECENT 
TENDENCIES 

FUTURE  ages  will  find  it  easier  than  we  to  distinguish 
between  the  numerous  intellectual  movements  that  com- 
bined to  cause  the  reaction  against  naturalism.  There 
was,  of  course,  an  element  of  romanticism  in  the  distaste 
for  life  as  it  is  and  as  modern  art  is  content  to  present  it  to 
us,  and  in  the  longing  for  life  as  it  used  to  be,  or  as  it  seemed 
to  the  childlike  view  of  the  art  of  olden  times.  One  might  also 
attribute  to  other  intellectual  phenomena — spiritualism  and 
other  forms  of  mysticism — or  the  enthusiasm  for  the  Middle 
Ages  and  the  early  Renaissance,  some  share  In  the  romantic 
reaction  against  naturalism;  such  enthusiasm  for  the  past  Is 
one  of  the  familiar  effects  of  the  fragrance,  benumbing  to 
common  sense,  which  rises  from  the  blue  flower  of  Romanti- 
cism wherever  It  spreads  Its  calyx.  The  cult  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  the  early  Renaissance  in  Germany  about  1815 
(the  Nazarenes),  In  England  about  1848  (the  pre-Raphael- 
ites,  In  France  about  1890  (Salon  de  la  Rose  Croix), 
was  In  each  case  the  expression  of  some  sort  of  atti- 
tude toward  life;  In  Denmark  It  never  became  much  more 
than  an  attitude  toward  art.  What  there  was  in  Denmark  of 
a  Gothic  or  otherwise  romantic  attitude  toward  life  was  ab- 
sorbed by  the  review  Taarnet,  and  with  it  disappeared  almost 
entirely,  having  had  only  a  very  transitory  effect  on  a  few 
of  our  painters  In  their  early  youth.  The  romantic  attitude 
toward  art,  on  the  contrary,  took  hold  of  some  of  the  most 
modern  painters,  and  left  lasting  traces  In  their  work. 

In  Its  further  evolution,  which  swept  rapidly  onward,  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  romantic  attitudes  toward  art  for  the 
artistic  forms  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  early  Renaissance 
broadened  out  until  It  included  all  artistic  forms  which  raised 

359 


360  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  eye  and  the  mind  to  concepts  superior  to  the  common- 
place. Rome  and  Florence  (and  in  certain  cases  also 
Athens)  now  supplanted  Paris  as  the  place  of  pilgrimage, 
and  instead  of  bringing  home  from  the  South  the  greatest 
possible  number  of  little  paintings,  the  pilgrim's  object  now 
was  to  bring  back  the  greatest  possible  number  of  big  im- 
pressions. What  men  hoped  for  was  to  be  able  to  restore 
one  of  the  marvels  of  creation,  nature,  to  something  of  its 
majesty,  which  artistic  naturalism  had  dissolved  into  triv- 
ialities, and  to  restore  the  other  great  marvel  of  creation, 
the  human  form,  to  something  of  its  aristocratic  dignity, 
which  democracy,  faithful  follower  of  naturalism,  had  sac- 
rificed to  mere  truthfulness.  This  hope  was  sustained  by 
the  realization  that  line  is  the  essential  medium  of  ex- 
pression of  an  art  that  aims  at  style  and  decorative  effect, 
whereas  color  in  such  an  art  is  only  a  means  and  not 
an  end  in  itself. 

A  profound  distaste  for  oils  became  widespread  under 
these  circumstances.  It  was  the  use  of  oils,  so  men  thought 
then,  as  they  have  thought  before  under  corresponding  con- 
ditions, that  had  led  art  astray  from  its  great  task.  The  sal- 
vation of  art  was  commonly  sought  in  the  media  of  the  old 
masters,  in  tempera  or  fresco.  As  fresco  postulates  walls, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  rest  content  with  canvas  for  the  time 
being,  painters  made  use  either  of  the  prevailing  oils,  adding 
a  dull  finish,  or  of  the  new  tempera  colors  which  enterpris- 
ing firms  began  to  keep  in  stock.  The  application  of  gold 
was  likewise  revived — in  fact,  in  despair  at  their  inability 
to  find  means  of  expression  which  improved  sufficiently  on 
the  mere  reproduction  of  nature,  either  in  decorative  or  in 
symbolical  effect,  the  painters  had  recourse  to  untried  and 
ill-chosen  means.  There  was  one  who  embossed  a  golden 
corn-field  in  copper  and  painted  in  a  sky  in  ordinary  oils. 
There  was  another  who  cut  his  whole  picture  in  wood,  then 
painted  it,  and  picked  out  details  in  bronze.  Many  other 
expedients  might  be  described,  showing  the  desperation  of 
those  who  were  anxious  to  express  the  new  gospel  but  who 
could  not  utter  it  in  sufficiently  eloquent  form. 


DANISH  AR'V  IN    rill':   XIX   CllNTURY     361 

These  artists,  were,  of  course,  not  entirely  mistaken  in 
their  belief  that  the  great  traditions  of  art  were  insejiaralily 
connected  with  the  media  used  before  the  discovery  of  oil 
painting.  It  was  painting  in  oils  that  gave  rise  to  easel 
painting,  and  It  was  easel  painting  that  caused  art  to  forsake 
first  its  monumental  function  and  then  its  monumental  point 
of  view,  growing  narrower  and  narrower  in  its  scope  as  it 
disassociated  the  pictorial  from  the  architectonic  and  plastic, 
thus  sundering  the  unity  of  the  arts  which  is  the  secret  of 
true  purity  of  style.  But  they  were  mistaken  in  many  other 
ways — especially  in  their  belief  that  they  were  in  a  position 
to  emancipate  themselves  from  all  connection  with  the  pre- 
ceding generation  and  the  naturalistic  education  it  had  trans- 
mitted to  them.  More  than  one  of  them  lacerated  himself 
In  the  foolhardy  attempt  to  tear  himself  free  from  his  own 
previous  evolution.  There  were,  in  fact,  only  two  of  them 
who  escaped  unhurt,  and  these  two  succeeded  only  because 
they  were  peculiarly  well  equipped  for  the  struggle. 

The  special  gift  that  enabled  the  brothers  Skovgaard  to 
be  strongly  traditional  in  their  decorative  work,  despite  the 
fact  that  they  were  almost  purely  naturalistic  In  their  easel 
painting,  was  based  on  their  Inheritance  from  their  father,  the 
old  landscape  painter.  His  talent  had  developed  not  merely 
on  his  feeling  for  character,  but  on  a  sense  of  style  acquired 
from  his  study  of  the  art  of  former  times,  plainly  evident  In 
all  the  decorative  work  from  his  hand.  This  sense  of  style 
and  the  decorative  faculty  resulting  from  it,  which  In  the 
father's  case  was  mainly  the  product  of  education,  was  in- 
herited by  the  sons  as  a  natural  talent.  With  this  dual  ca- 
pacity as  a  base-line  from  which  they  could  pilot  their  course 
alternately  In  the  traditional  and  the  naturalistic  directions, 
they  were  able  successfully  to  weather  the  rock  In  which  so 
many  others  ran  aground — the  rock  of  no  style  at  all. 

Neither  of  them  made  color  the  subject  of  thorough  study 
or  subtle  discrimination.  Accustomed  to  using  paint  decora- 
tlvely  In  a  large  and  elemental  spirit  of  their  own,  they  were 
not  sensitive  to  the  breaking  up  of  colors  In  nature,  which 
when  faithfully  reproduced  contributes  so  much  to  the  effec- 


362 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


DANISH   \\<V   IN    rill<:  XIX   CIlNllIRY     2G3 

ti\'cness  of  inircly  naturalistic  painting.  They  none  the  less 
succeeded  as  naturalistic  painters — jiroducing  many  land- 
scapes that  arc  jilcasino-  aiul  a  few  that  arc  really  notable, 
fresher  than  their  father's  pictures,  and  recalling  some  of  the 
best  of  his  studies.  They  also  did  many  pleasing  and  a  few 
notable  genre  pictures.  The  elder,  Joakim,  especially  dis- 
tinguished himself  as  a  painter  of  his  own  family  life  in  the 
home  of  his  childhood,  scenes  of  simple  contentment  that 
carry  one's  thoughts  back  not  only  to  the  older  Skovgaard, 
who  lived  here,  but  also  to  his  close  friend  and  sympathizer, 
Constantin  Hansen,  who  liveci  in  a  similar  home  and  painted 
similar  pictures,  although  in  a  less  bountiful  spirit.  In  gen- 
eral, there  is  much  in  the  work  of  the  two  brothers  that 
reminds  us  of  this  friend  of  their  father's  quite  as  much  as 
it  reminds  us  of  the  father  himself.  He  stood  upon  the  cen- 
tury old  foundation  of  Inspiration  from  the  art  of  ancient 
Greece,  and  also  of  Italy,  in  its  period  of  full  blossoming. 
They  stood  upon  the  newer  foundation  of  inspiration  from 
the  art  of  former  times  In  Its  period  of  development,  a  foun- 
dation that  had  been  slowly  but  surely  deposited  beneath 
the  tides  of  successive  artistic  movements  all  through  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  since  about  1890  has  seemed  to 
replace  the  older  foundation  for  a  time,  may  be  even  for 
centuries.  The  modern  archaism  of  the  two  brothers,  there- 
fore. Is  In  contrast  to  the  old-fashioned  classicism  of  Con- 
stantin Hansen.  The  contrast  is  weakened,  however,  and 
the  relationship  revealed,  by  the  fact  that  their  archaism 
quite  as  much  as  his  classicism  is  saturated  with  the  spirit  of 
Grundtvlg,  who,  childlike,  popular,  Danish  and  bold,  re- 
modelled everything,  Greek  or  Italian,  to  fit  his  own  robust 
Northern  measure.  Thus  these  two  brothers,  besides  all 
their  other  advantages  over  their  contemporaries  who  broke 
away  from  naturalism,  had  the  advantage  of  inheriting  an 
attitude  toward  life  which  had  been  tested  and  found  valid 
as  a  support  for  an  aspiring  attitude  toward  art  by  men  like 
their  father  and  Constantin  Hansen.  It  Is  in  fact  Impossible 
to  name  any  one  in  Denmark  whose  work  has  roots  struck 
so  deep  In  the  best  traditions  as  these  two  brothers.  Through 


364  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

their  relation  to  their  father  and  his  contemporaries,  their 
work  has  a  root  in  the  Denmark  of  1850;  through  Grundt- 
vig,  in  the  Denmark  of  the  heroic  era  ;  through  Giotto,  in  old 
Italy;  through  unknown  masters,  in  the  oldest  and  noblest 
period  of  Greece.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  nothing  seems 
more  firmly  grounded  than  these  brothers'  taste  and  style. 

With  the  same  endowment,  the  same  upbringing,  the  same 
travels  and  experiences,  for  a  long  time  It  seemed  that  they 
must  resemble  each  other,  until,  after  a  journey  to  Italy, 
the  development  of  the  elder  brother,  Joakim,  gained  greater 
headway  than  that  of  the  younger.  The  colorful,  brilliant 
landscapes  and  figure  paintings,  which  he  produced  In  Italy 
under  the  Influence  of  Viggo  Pedersen  and  Zahrtmann, 
merely  promised  to  Danish  art  another  distinguished  ob- 
server of  nature,  but  in  a  set  of  drawings  for  Grundtvig's 
hymn,  "O  Blessed  Day,"  which  he  completed  shortly  after 
his  return,  he  showed  the  tempestuous  Imagination  which  pro- 
claimed this  was  an  artist  who  might  be  expected  to  sweep 
down  upon  the  land  like  a  storm.  In  the  picture  of  the  Pool 
of  Bethesda  the  crowd  of  unfortunates  who  frantically  rush 
for  the  water  as  the  angel  stirs  It,  In  the  picture  showing  the 
walls  of  Paradise  towering  with  celestial  boldness  round  the 
scene  of  Christ  and  the  Thief  In  the  Garden  of  Eden,  in  the 
picture  of  Permina  exchanging  glances  with  Hannah — in  all 
these  there  was  the  lightning  flash  of  his  genius.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  the  appearance,  in  1893,  of  Christ  In  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Dead  that  the  whole  storm  burst.  A  super- 
fluity of  strong  Impressions  of  beauty  must  have  been  stored 
in  Skovgaard's  unusually  receptive  mind  at  that  time,  for  it 
seems  as  if  a  collision  of  such  impressions  must  have  caused 
the  explosion  that  brought  forth  this  picture.  He  had  worked 
It  up  out  of  a  fancy  of  Grundtvig's,  apparently  not  without 
knowledge  of  Tintoretto's  treatment  of  the  same  theme 
(Christo  in  Limbo,  S.  Cassiano,  Venice)  ;  the  dominant 
chord  was  a  Halleluja,  In  which  resounded  the  tones  of 
Grundtvig's  deep-booming  organ.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  traces  of  Michelangelo  In  the  figure  of  Eve,  none  of  the 
Impressions  of  beauty  whose  collusion  gave  rise  to  the  pic- 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE 

XIX  CJ<:N  lURY     305 

jn^K^r'.^^PjL.o" ., 

*  ^^:^^^mmm 

.* 

^m^Xi  A 

?s 

X^  y^  \ 

—■ 

<'    /^    \ 

^     ■•*^    -1  -  ^.mmP^^ 

■      1      -■                                             .J««yv„^~_ 

V 

Christ  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Dead,  by  Joakim  Skovgaard 


ture  could  be  singled  out.  It  was  simply  perceptible  from 
the  huge  formations  in  the  picture  that  mighty  forces  had 
rushed  together  and  that  a  vast  phenomenon  of  nature  had 
taken  place  in  a  great  artist's  soul. 

To  this  tremendous  outburst  succeeded  calmer  times  in 
Joakim  Skovgaard's  being.  Meanwhile  he  kept  on  with  his 
series  of  notable  naturalistic  landscapes  (especially  on  sub- 
jects from  Halland  in  Sweden),  added  to  the  small  number 
of  his  pictures  from  Greece  (among  others  his  charming 
picture  of  the  Erechtheion  Caryatids),  and  gave  expression 
to  his  religious  thought  in  a  succession  of  religious  works 
(an  altar  for  St.  Nikolaj  Church  at  Svendborg,  the  An- 
nunciation In  the  Helligaandskirke,  mosaics  in  the  Emanuel 
Church,  projects  for  the  decoration  of  Viborg  Cathedral), 
which  testify  to  a  searching  study  of  the  figure  style  of  Giotto 
and  his  contemporaries.  Humbly  acknowledging  that  mod- 
ern times  had  little  possibility  of  producing  anything  new  In 
ecclesiastical  art  that  can  compare  with  the  best  of  the  old, 
Skovgaard  steeped  himself  In  the  conventions  of  the  old 
painting.    His  sound  sense,  however,  and  the  wholesomeness 


%6 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


of  his  taste,  fortunately  soon  broke  away  from  the  ascetic 
form  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  there  finally  remained  in  his 
style  nothing  of  the  old  art  except  its  genuine  and  naive, 
simple  and  primitive  spirit.  Not  only  in  his  illustrations 
of  folk-tales  that  he  did  in  this  period  (The  Maiden  in  the 
Hind's  Skin,  The  Maiden  in  the  Bird's  Skin,  and  Urselille), 
his  own  healthy,  robust,  figure  style  emerges ;  also  in  a  few 
of  the  biblical  pictures,  which  were  a  kind  of  preparation 


;\ 


*^ 


'ilie  A'ewl) -created  Ese,   water-color,  by  Joakim   Sko\gaard 


for  the  Viborg  decorations,  it  was  already  manifest  in  all  its 
original  freshness.  One  should  especially  note  the  big  water 
color  of  The  Newly-created  Eve,  in  which  Eve  deserves 
artistically  the  designation  "newly-created,"  and  In  which 
no  atom  of  the  dust  of  erudition  has  marred  the  freshness  of 
the  first  joyful  morning  of  the  ages,  of  mankind,  and  of 
flowers.  That  Skovgaard  mastered  this  particular  subject 
in  this  pure,  sparkling  spirit,  shows,  perhaps,  better  than  any- 
thing else,  that  he  combined  with  all  his  learning  not  only 
a  fresh  but  a  primevally  fresh  perception  of  the  beauty  of 
creation.     And  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  faculty  was 


DANISH  y\Rr   IN  'l\\\\  XIX  CIIN'FURY     367 

a  fountain  which  rIppK'd  through  his  other  j^ifts  and  ^a\'C 
them  their  woiuicrl  III  hixiiriancf. 

Thus  prepared  and  matured,  he  approached  the  great 
achievement  of  his  manhood — his  real  life's  work,  one  may 
well  say:  the  decoration  in  fresco  of  Viborg  Cathedral  with 
the  Bible  in  pictures.  Such  a  work,  requiring  a  great  number 
of  compositions,  naturally  cannot  be  described  in  a  summary 
like  this.     It  must  suffice  to  indicate  its  character. 

A  feature  of  this  v^ast  scheme  of  decoration  which  is  im- 
mediately striking  and  at  the  same  time  deeply  significant 
is  the  unusually  genuine,  authentic  quality  of  the  religious 
feeling,  and  the  natural  connection  between  that  and  the 
artistic  feeling — something  almost  unparalleled  in  modern 
ecclesiastical  art.  Christianity  in  its  joyous,  childishly  trust- 
ing form,  characteristic  of  the  school  of  Grundtvig,  of  which 
Skovgaard  was  an  adherent,  has  here  entered  into  such  an 
intimate  association  with  art  that  the  effect  is  not  merely 
that  of  art  but  of  preaching.  Believers,  at  least  believers  in 
communion  with  Grundtvig,  must  here  feel  themselves  con- 
strained to  admit  that  the  scenes  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment must  have  taken  place  just  as  Skovgaard  has  repre- 
sented them.  It  is  as  though  Skovgaard  had  been  initiated 
into  all  the  mysteries  of  heaven  and  the  after  life;  as  if,  for 
instance,  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the  angels  opening 
the  great  gates  of  Paradise.  Nor  is  this  Impression  hard  to 
account  for.  He  really  did  see  all  these  things  with  his 
inward  eyes,  and  as  his  eyes  were  those  not  only  of  a  be- 
lieving Christian  but  of  a  great  creative  artist  with  a  sure 
instinct  for  taste,  measure,  and  style,  and  a  no  less  certain 
instinct  for  striking  decorative  effects,  he  moulded  everything 
that  came  to  his  hand  Into  a  series  of  compositions  which, 
resting  partly  on  a  foundation  of  the  most  deep-seated  emo- 
tions, partly  on  a  foundation  of  artistic  education  equally 
profound  and  solid,  bear  the  great  and  noble  stamp  of  classic 
Inevitability,  simplicity,  and  wholesomeness.  One  can  and 
will  readily  admit  that  the  Viborg  pictures  would  be  incon- 
ceivable were  it  not  for  certain  prototypes  from  earlier 
times.     Skovgaard,  for  Instance,  learned  from  the  medieval 


368 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Great  Supper,  fresco  in  Viborg  Cathedral,  by  Joakim  Skovgaard 


painters  to  dispense  with  linear  and  aerial  perspective  and  to 
conjure  up  settings  for  one  biblical  scene  after  another  with 
only  an  indication  of  locality.  It  is  also  easy  to  see  that 
in  some  places  he  is  under  the  Influence  of  Rembrandt,  in 
others  under  the  influence  of  the  Greeks.     Everything  Is 


DANISH    Akr   IN    rill':   XIX   CIINIURY     369 


The  Crucifixion,  fresco  In  Viborg  Cathedral,  by  Joakim  Skovgaard 


completely  assimilated,  however,  transformed  and  individu- 
alized into  a  style  which  is  Skovgaard's  own,  a  style  severe 
yet  in  no  wise  stiff  or  cold;  it  is  as  living  and  warm  In  Its  ex- 
pression as  life  Itself,  simple,  natui'al,  without  a  trace  of  the 
effort  which  usually  follows  like  a  shadow  all  the  ambitious 
endeavors  of  modern  art. 


370  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

With  its  four  or  five  hundred  figures,  covering  an  area  of 
something  like  16,000  square  feet,  the  Viborg  decoration 
is  the  most  colossal  work  in  all  Danish  art.  It  affords,  one 
may  safely  say,  a  complete  and  exhaustive  study  of  Skov- 
gaard's  characteristics  as  a  monumental  painter.  His  deco- 
rative talent,  however,  has  phases  which  must  be  sought 
elsewhere.  He  has  furnished  drawings  for  seals  and  med- 
als, for  bookbindings,  for  furniture  and  other  useful  articles, 
for  tapestries,  and  for  a  few  excellent  fountains,  of  which 
two  have  been  erected  respectively  in  and  near  the  new 
Town  Hall  in  Copenhagen.  He  takes  delight  in  decorative 
work,  and  is  always  eager  to  do  it.  This  is  a  family  trait, 
appearing  also  in  Niels  Skovgaard,  who  devotes  himself 
so  ardently  to  decorative  work  that,  as  he  is  not  so  produc- 
tive as  his  brother,  he  has  been  less  active  as  a  painter  than 
the  equally  versatile  Joakim.  A  single  colossal  work,  which 
is  also  a  masterpiece,  has  at  last  come  from  his  sparing  hand 
after  ten  years  of  projects  and  experiments.  This  is  the 
altar-piece  in  the  Emanuel  Church  in  Copenhagen,  a  repre- 
sentation of  The  Baptism  Whitsunday  Morning,  which  with 
its  vernal  and  festive  tone,  its  sunshine  and  soulshine,  is  one 
of  the  loveliest  pictures  In  recent  Danish  art,  and  Is  especially 
noteworthy  because  of  the  clarity  and  intelligibility  of  the 
composition  and  the  genuine  feeling  of  the  narration.  The 
style  is  the  Skovgaard  brothers'  usual  blend  of  Greek  and 
Italian  archaism  with  unadulterated  Grundtvigianism,  child- 
like and  popular,  Danish  and  bold,  here  as  elsewhere  mak- 
ing everything  conform  to  its  own  robust  Northern  measure. 
Whereas  Joakim  Skovgaard's  nature  Is  explosive,  his 
brother's  Is,  rather,  reflective.  This  explains  the  effect  in 
the  work  under  discussion  of  subsidence  and  clarification, 
of  final  completeness  and  restfulness,  such  as  the  indefatig- 
able Joakim  does  not  always  allow  himself  the  time  to  attain. 

Niels  Skovgaard  may  seem  to  Idle  and  waste  his  time, 
because  it  Is  his  nature  to  muse  and  meditate.  His  special 
gift  Is  a  brilliant  decorative  imagination,  which  displays  Its 
wealth  no  less  In  his  experiments  in  ceramics  than  In  his  etch- 
ings and  Illustrations.     In  this  last  field  he  has  created  a 


DAN'isii  Aur  IN  nil';  xi\  ei;xji  in    .^71 


^^^B^^^     S^fc.  ^^^                     ,      -n -^  _: 

^J" 

Hfc-^^rt' 

^^V^^BJ^PWabw                  i  _a. 

PV  1^          j/1; 

^:"^-;P_,^ / 

.^'   a>-^  '    i  ^ 

The  Baptism  Whitsunday  Morning,  by  Niels  Skovgaard 


Northern  style  of  his  own,  more  symboHcal  than  FroHch's 
yet  severe  and  restrained  like  Constantin  Hansen's.  It  is 
more  than  anything  else  his  plastic  work,  however,  which 
constitutes  his  lasting  achievement.  His  relief  of  Aage  and 
Else,  his  tombstones  for  Barfoed  and  Hostrup,  his  monu- 
ment on  Lyrskov  heath,  his  Hel  Horse  fountain,  rank  among 
the  best  of  Danish  sculpture.  Especially  in  the  last-named 
of  these  big,  boldly-carved  works  his  abstinence  from  all  but 
the  most  absolutely  necessary  lines  and  forms  brings  him 
close  to  that  sublime  renunciation  of  the  unessential  which 
the  oldest  monuments  of  art  have  taught  us  to  honor  as  the 
highest  artistic  wisdom. 

The  landscape  painter  VIggo  Pedersen,  whose  develop- 
ment has  since  gone  through  numerous  phases,  at  first  re- 
sembled the  Skovgaard  brothers  in  many  ways.  Not  only 
was  he  the  first  of  the  line  of  those  who  endeavored  to  re- 
place oils  by  some  new  medium,  but  he  ventured  into  original 
fields  of  his  own,  trying  his  hand  at  religious  subjects,  Imag- 
niatlve  subjects,  portraits,  and  genre  painting.     His  style 


372 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


a  a   Farmhouse,  by  Viggo  Pedersen 


in  these  different  fields  became  even  more  variable  than  it 
was  in  landscape  paintings,  for  in  that  field  he  formed  only 
one  fruitful  union  (with  French  synthetic  art),  while  his 
imaginary  and  religious  figures  are  the  offspring  of  transi- 
tory connections  with  many  kinds  of  art,  from  ancient  Italian 
down  to  modern  German.  Yet  all  the  while  his  general 
artistic  trend  was  more  and  more  definitely  toward  the  Skov^- 
gaard  circle,  as  is  perhaps  most  plainly  evident  in  the  pic- 
tures which  he,  too,  painted  of  his  home.  These  show  very 
much  the  same  spirit  as  Joakim  Skovgaard's  paintings  of  his 
home.  This  benevolent  spirit,  unfortunately,  has  lately  for- 
saken his  landscapes,  which  are  often  attractive  as  compo- 
sitions, but  show  a  propensity  to  an  over-exuberant,  rich, 
glaring  color  scheme,  which  is  discordant  with  the  rest  of 
Danish  art. 

The  landscape  and  figure  painter  Johannes  Kragh  (lately 
active  as  a  sculptor  also),  who  began  as  a  disciple  of  Viggo 
Pedersen  and  Skovgaard,  is  talented,  but  his  individuality 
Is  still  unformed  and  vacillating;  he  is  progressing  rather 


DANISH  ARr  IN    1111':  XIX  CKN'IURY     373 


Winter  Day  in  RIbe,  by  Johan  Rohde 


uncertainly,  absorbed  in  his  very  praiseworthy  ambitions  as 
to  decorative  style.  The  pupil  who  follows  Skovgaard  most 
closely  is  Larsen  Stevns,  who  in  his  biblical  pictures  has  made 
the  master's  style  even  plainer  and  more  unpretentious  than 
It  Is  in  Itself.  Likewise  very  intimately  connected  with  the 
Skovgaard  circle  in  the  simplicity  of  her  temper  is  Elise  Kon- 
stantln  Hansen,  to  whom  the  decorative  style  comes  natu- 
rally, for  in  her  case  it  is  evidently  based  on  her  heritage 
from  her  father.  It  was,  however,  neither  from  Greece  nor 
from  Italy  but  from  Japan  that  she,  like  Susette  Holten,  the 
Skovgaard  brothers'  sister,  received  her  decorative  Impulse, 
which,  like  the  Japanese  artists,  she  has  devoted  chiefly  to 
the  paintings  of  plants  and  animals. 

In  those  days,  the  late  eighties  and  early  nineties,  painters 
In  search  of  forms  through  which  art  might  be  renewed 
and  elevated  turned  their  eyes  in  all  directions,  toward  all 
periods  and  countries.     Hardly  any  one  had  such  eyes  for 


374  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  search  as  Johan  Rohde,  who,  thanks  to  his  comprehen- 
sive education,  his  clear  intelHgence,  his  knowledge  of  art, 
and  his  critical  faculty,  occupied  a  commanding  position 
among  the  young  men,  most  of  them  younger  than  he,  of 
that  period.  He  sought  and  found,  after  his  first  hesitating 
experiments,  a  happy  medium  between  the  old  Dutch  land- 
scape painting  and  modern  French  painting;  from  the 
former  he  learned  the  decorative  value  of  the  silhouette 
effect  of  a  well-chosen  motif,  and  from  the  latter  he  learned 
to  simplify  in  order  to  characterize  sharply  and  tersely. 
For  a  long  time  his  painting  was  rather  heavy  and  laborious, 
but  if  his  pictures  were  somewhat  massive  they  had  a  com- 
pensating quality  of  saturation  and  condensation  which  was 
distinctive.  Himself  a  provincial  by  birth,  he  had  a  genuine 
and  intimate  feeling  for  his  subjects,  the  picturesque  little 
old-fashioned  towns  of  Holland  and  Denmark.  This  feel- 
ing imposed  certain  limits  on  the  formalities  of  style  to  which 
he  was  ordinarily  partial,  and  to  which  he  has  rendered  due 
homage  in  a  few  dignified  portraits,  as  also  in  the  series 
of  designs  for  simple  and  stately  pieces  of  furniture  and 
other  useful  articles  in  which  for  the  last  ten  years  he  has 
found  extraordinarily  abundant  expression  of  his  fondness 
for  style.  As  a  painter  he  was  essentially  a  follower  of  the 
old  Danish  artists.  One  may  see  this  best,  perhaps,  in  the 
views  of  Italy  that  he  painted  on  his  many  southward  travels, 
but  his  later  pictures  of  Denmark,  of  Ribe,  Fano,  or  Ghris- 
tianshavn,  also  show  that  in  the  course  of  the  years  he  wisely 
abandoned  the  struggle  to  attain  the  new  and  ambitious  and 
resigned  himself  to  the  old,  tried,  and  unpretentious  point 
of  view. 

Among  his  comrades  in  the  youthful  struggle  for  high 
ideals  were  Harald  and  Agnes  Slott-Moller,  husband  and 
wife.  He  was  endowed  in  his  youth  with  abundant  profes- 
sional talent;  she  was  if  anything  rather  lacking  in  this  re- 
spect, but  she  had  in  compensation  a  poetic  gift.  She  was  an 
enthusiast  for  the  Middle  Ages;  he  was  given  to  the  study 
of  models,  which  was  to  her  a  painful  but  necessary  means, 
but  to  him  an  end  in     itself.     She  soon  infected  him  with 


DANISH    .\\<l   IN   nil':   XIX    ClATl'kV     37? 


Im 

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Illustration    for    the    Ballad    "Duke    Frydenborg,"    bv   Agnes 
Slott-Moller 


the  inclination  to  dream  and  spin  romances,  and  thereby 
weakened  his  fidelity  to  simple  and  natural  observation  of 
reality.  A  trip  which  they  took  together  in  1889,  visiting 
Italy  for  the  first  time,  brought  them  very  close  to  each 
other,  inspiring  .both  with  an  ardor  for  style  as  the  sign  of 
artistic  aristocracy.  They  came  home  and  began  to  dis- 
seminate their  conception  of  style,  causing  considerable  stir 
among  their  friends  and  associates.  From  that  time  on  the 
journey  to  Italy  again  became  habitual.  Historically,  the 
service  rendered  by  Slott-Moller  and  his  wife  Is  that  they 
called  attention  to  the  almost  forgotten  fact  that  Danish  art 
might  acquire  mastery  of  style  as  a  result  of  these  trips  to 
Italy. 


376  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  overpowering  impression  of  the  great  painting  which 
they  found  in  Italy  unfortunately  did  not  come  to  either 
of  them  at  the  right  moment.  He  had  already  been  too 
thoroughly  schooled  in  the  downright  reproduction  of 
nature;  she,  on  the  contrary,  had  so  little  schooling  of  that 
kind  that  her  early-acquired  habit  of  making  her  style  ab- 
stract threatened  the  solidity  of  her  form,  already  endan- 
gered by  her  choice  of  subjects.  It  was  in  the  representation 
of  scenes  and  moods  from  medieval  Danish  folk-songs 
that  she  had  found  her  life's  work.  Ever  since  her  child- 
hood the  low,  muffled  voices  of  these  ballads  had  echoed 
through  her  fancy,  and  with  the  voices  came  apparitions  of 
their  heroes.  This  gave  her  art  from  the  very  outset  an  in- 
corporeal quality.  For  a  long  time  she  resisted  this  weak- 
ness with  great  energy,  until  under  English  influence  (Ros- 
setti)  she  was  induced  to  indulge  herself  in  the  representa- 
tion of  the  psychic  emotions,  and  as  at  the  same  time  she 
developed  a  taste  for  saccharine  coloring,  the  original  en- 
deavor to  attain  severity  of  style  was  no  longer  seriously 
sustained  in  her  painting.  Her  endeavor  is  perhaps  most 
evident  in  a  few  of  her  plastic  works,  Ebbe's  Daughters, 
Queen  Dagmar's  Death,  The  Town  Council.  In  its  place 
of  honor  over  the  entrance  to  the  new  Copenhagen  Raadhus 
(Town  Hall)  the  last-named  relief  will  testify  to  later  gen- 
erations that  even  a  Danish  woman  artist,  about  the  year 
1900,  had  attained  a  realization  of  the  monumental  stand- 
ards of  art. 

Of  the  other  member  of  the  couple,  Harald  Slott-Moller, 
it  must  unfortunately  be  recorded  that,  led  astray  by  what 
one  might  call  his  sweet  tooth  for  beauty,  he  has  not  lived 
up  to  the  great  promise  of  his  youth.  If  one  considers  his 
whole  production  as  a  painter,  one  is  struck  by  the  fact  that 
a  large  majority  of  his  works  deal  with  Arcadian  and  idyllic 
subjects.  The  long  series  extends  from  In  Arcady  (1892) 
to  In  Italy  (1903)  and  on  down  to  the  last  few  years.  One 
would  gladly  explain  his  predilection  for  such  subjects  on 
grounds  of  indisputably  genuine  artistic  thirst  for  the  beau- 
ties of  life,  were  it  possible  to  overlook  the  fact  that  a  more 


DANISH  Akr  IN  rill';  xix  ci'.niury    zii 


Summer  Evening,  by  Harald  Slott-Moller 


worldly  appetite  has  kept  him  constantly  circling  round  these 
subjects,  and  has  led  him  to  emphasize  their  alluring  qualities 
more  hungrily  than  is  altogether  attractive.  Finally,  his 
brushwork  has  simultaneously  become  too  smooth,  and  his 
coloring  much  too  pretty.  The  result  is  that  he  has  on  his 
conscience  a  great  many  failures — pictures  of  uncertain  taste. 
Yet  even  leaving  out  of  consideration  the  fact  that  he  is  much 
more  frequently  successful  in  the  decorative  field,  he  is  a  man 
who  cannot  be  passed  over  when  the  history  of  Danish  art 
is  written.  An  artist  who  as  a  mere  youth  painted  the  bril- 
liantly clever  picture  The  Doctor's  Waiting-room  and  the 
no  less  brilliantly  clever  portrait  of  his  wife,  whose  execu- 
tion was  so  fresh  that  it  faintly  recalled  no  less  a  person  than 
Velazquez,  will  be  brought  forward  again,  as  he  was  origi- 
nally, as  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  his  generation. 

The  man  who  will  always  without  the  slightest  doubt  be 
named  as  the  most  remarkable  man  of  this  generation  is 
Willumsen.     Starting  as  an  architect,  he  became  a  painter. 


378 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Jotunheimen,  b}'  J.  F.  Willumsen 


then  a  ceramic  artist,  and  later  still  showed  that  it  was  per- 
haps as  a  sculptor  he  could  best  find  an  outlet  for  the  full 
force  of  his  artistic  nature.  In  Paris  in  the  early  nineties, 
under  the  influence  of  various  kinds  of  modern  impression- 
istic and  symbolistic  French  art,  he  burned  all  the  bridges 
that  connected  him  with  his  own  past  and  the  past  of  Den- 
mark. He  attached  himself  for  a  time  to  Raffaelli,  a  little 
later  to  Gauguin,  but  he  shook  off  their  Influence,  too,  and 
when  he  made  his  first  appearance  at  the  Free  Exhibition 
with  a  long  series  of  his  works  and  scandalized  the  whole 
capital,  he  was  unquestionably  the  most  individual  phenom- 
enon that  had  ever  manifested  itself  In  our  art.  What 
made  people  especially  angry  was  his  pretention  to  pro- 
fundity. He  was  not  profound,  and  he  has  not  become  so 
since.  But  It  was  to  the  advantage  of  his  artistic  form  that 
he  himself  attributed  to  even  the  most  elementary  of  his 
thoughts  on  existence  an  exceedingly  deep  significance.  This 
encouraged  him  to  feel  that  he  was  at  a  respectful  distance 
from  everyday  life,  which,  seen  at  such  distance,  grew  be- 
fore his  wondering  gaze,  and  passed  Into  his  art  In  propor- 
tions greater  than  the  actual.  His  art  was  founded  on 
this  attitude  of  respect  and  aloofness.  Instead  of  on  a  rela- 


DANISH  Ai<r  IN  rill';  xi\  ci'iNrukv    .^?) 


(loii  between  artist  aiul  suhjccl  ol  alleetion  so  \\ai"i)i  tlial 
it  rapidly  comnuinieatcs  itself  to  the  beholder  and  makes 
him  also  feel  an  affection  lor  the  work  of  art;  the  conse- 
quence is  that  everything  that  came  Irom  his  hand — far 
trom  beinji;  ingratiating — was  singularly  unapproachable 
and  im|ier\ious  to  leeling.  Nor  did  it  carry  any  \ery  \ital 
message;  it  was  not,  as  \\e  ha\e  said,  especiall)'  pi-olound. 
Yet  it  olten  appealed  to  the  imaguiation  in  soniewhat  the 
same  manner  as  the  art  of  the  earliest  times.  It  succeeded 
in  this  because  there  really  was  in  his  character  something 
of  the  primitive  man's  awe  for  the  mystery  of  nature  and  of 
existence.  What  Willumsen's  work  then  had,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  still  has,  in  common  with  the  very  oldest  art, 
is  not  limited  to  the  conventions,  but  is  something  of  its 
actual  spirit,  wrung  by  perplexity  under  the  moral  pressure 
of  the  mystery  of  existence,  and  using  art  to  relieve  Itself 
of  that  pressure  by  throwing  off  mighty  forms.  For  this 
purpose  art  requires,  among  other  things,  a  pair  of  power- 
ful hands  that  can 
lay  hold  of  such 
forms  and  carry 
them  over  Intact, 
strong  and  whole, 
from  the  Imagina- 
tion to  the  work  of 
art.  Such  a  pair  of 
hands — a  pair  of 
fists,  one  Is  tempted 
to  say — Is  just  what 
WUlumsen  has. 

Strictly  speaking, 
the  manly  energy  of 
his  hands,  which  is 
the  foundation  of 
the  manly  forceful- 
ness  of  his  treat- 
ment   of    form,     is 

perhaps       his       only  The  Mountain-climber,  by  J.  F.  Willumsen 


380  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

fully-developed  faculty  as  a  painter.  His  coloring  is  often 
crude  and  hard — he  is  least  of  all  a  colorist;  his  brushwork 
has  nothing  that  can  be  called  execution,  and  serves  exclu- 
sively to  fix  his  forms  to  the  canvas  with  few  and  often  rather 
brutal  strokes.  He  has  done  finished  work  only  in  fields 
other  than  painting — for  instance,  in  architecture,  the  build- 
ing for  the  Free  Exhibition;  in  sculpture,  a  few  large  busts 
and  the  memorial  to  his  parents;  in  handicraft,  a  cinerary 
urn  and  other  ceramics.  In  actual  painting,  it  is  among  his 
sketches  rather  than  among  his  more  pretentious  work  that 
we  find  complete  successes,  and  among  the  water-color 
sketches  rather  than  among  those  in  oil. 

Unquestionably  he  has  been  of  great  importance  in  the 
recent  and  especially  in  the  very  most  recent  developments 
of  Danish  art.  The  faith  that  he  has  long  cherished  in  the 
possibility  of  finding  artistic  expression  for  philosophical 
thoughts  and  subjective  emotions  in  the  use  of  abstract  lines 
has  undoubtedly  led  several  of  the  younger  draughtsmen 
even  further  into  that  fatal  tendency.  Apart  from  this, 
however,  he  has  exercised  a  very  decidedly  wholesome  and 
stimulating  influence.  In  the  first  place,  he  has  had  a  moral 
influence,  because  more  than  any  one  else  he  defied  and 
finally  bore  down  the  opposition  of  the  multitude,  thereby 
challenging  others  to  do  likewise  and  scorn  the  temptation 
to  make  terms  with  the  public.  He  has  also  had  an  artistic 
influence,  because  by  the  energy  of  his  treatment  of  form, 
whether  in  painting  or  sculpture,  he  has  set  a  much  needed 
example  to  others.  It  would  be  hard,  for  instance,  to  think 
of  Ejnar  Nielsen  without  Willumsen  as  a  predecessor  and 
a  presupposition.  It  has  been  correctly  said  of  this  artist 
that  it  is  not  the  shadows  of  life  with  which  he  has  chiefly 
occupied  himself,  but  the  coalblack  night  of  life.  Death, 
directly  represented  by  the  corpse,  is  by  no  means  the  most 
dreadful  thing  Ejnar  Nielsen  has  forced  us  to  contemplate; 
he  has  mercilessly  brought  us  face  to  face  with  what  is  more 
frightful  than  death:  the  incomplete  destruction  that  is  the 
fate  of  those  who  linger  on  though  paralyzed,  crippled,  or 
suffering  from  incurable  disease.     When  the  victims  of  his 


DANISH    AkI'   IN    rill':   XIX   Ci:N'iUkV     3,S1 


Portrait  Group,  by  Ejnar  Nielsen 


fantasies  of  the  hospital  or  the  charnel  house  have  not 
lain  swathed  in  winding-sheets  or  sentenced  to  a  miserable 
bed,  they  have  travelled  in  rags  that  made  the  thought  of 
their  existence  even  more  harrowing.  The  effect  of  these 
uncompromising  creations  would  have  been  merely  loath- 
some, and  one  would  have  hastily  turned  one's  back  on  them, 
had  not  the  artist  been  master  of  more  than  one  of  the 
means  that  enable  art  to  expiate  ugliness.     The  pictorial 


382  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

was  one  of  these  means;  the  pictures  were  painted  in  a 
few  grey  tones,  delicately  and  tastefully  harmonized.  But 
it  was  the  drawing  that  did  most  in  mitigation,  for  it  was 
the  drawing  that  raised  them  toward  the  monumental.  The 
most  beautiful  exemplification,  however,  of  this  artist's 
monumental  style  is  in  a  few  pictures  in  which  the  painter  of 
horrors  disclosed  a  surprising  feeling  for  human  beauty  and 
for  beautiful  human  sentiments,  first  in  a  portrait,  larger 
than  life,  of  a  young  sculptor  and  his  female  model  on  a 
balcony  overlooking  the  roofs  of  Paris  (1901),  later  in  a 
larger  group  and  In  several  individual  portraits,  among 
others,  one  of  Ellen  Key.  That  Ejnar  Nielsen's  spirit  is 
not  always  tortured  by  infernal  visions  is  also  proved  by 
a  few  flower-paintings  from  his  hand.  Yet  he  easily  reverts 
to  his  morbid  specialty,  as  he  has  recently,  for  Instance,  in  a 
Job  which  In  its  horribly  shameless  nakedness  gave  new 
proof  of  his  curiously  surcharged  imagination,  but  also  a 
new  evidence  of  his  masterly  talent  for  a  kind  of  monu- 
mental painting  which  unfortunately  he  has  not  yet  been 
given  opportunity  to  exercise. 

It  is  not  possible  to  name  any  more  contributions  of  per- 
sonal energy,  such  as  Willumsen's  and  Ejnar  Nielsen's,  to 
the  development  of  a  great  monumental  form  in  the  midst 
of  the  intimate  painting  of  Denmark;  for  unfortunately 
Hartmann  died  while  he  was  still  young  and  immature,  and 
he  was  the  only  other  man  of  whom  anything  of  the  kind 
might  have  been  expected.  There  was  a  touch  of  Dela- 
croix in  his  attempts  at  very  dramatic  pictures,  and  he  was  in 
general  possessed  of  very  great  talent.  On  the  other  hand, 
several  artists  may  be  pointed  out  who  have  endeavored 
to  change  and  improve  the  aspect  of  Danish  art  partly  by 
the  direct  importation  of  the  elevated  style  of  earlier  times. 
Thus  Fru  Bertha  Dorph,  with  her  sure  sense  of  plastic  form, 
soon  adapted  herself  to  the  severe  and  restricted  formulae 
of  portrait  painting  devised  by  Domenico  Veneziano,  the 
teacher  of  Piero  della  Francesca,  and  other  fifteenth  cen- 
tury Italians.  Earlier  still  Clement — after  he  had  aban- 
doned his  youthful   endeavors  to   follow  the  most  recent 


DANISH  Aki"  IN  nil':  \ix  cjuniury    3.s;. 


Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Father,  by  Ludvig  Find 


French  styles — had  painted  portraits  based  on  similar  for- 
mulae, though  he  tried  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  some- 
thing like  the  minute  study  of  detail  of  Roed  and  Ver- 
mehren.  His  portraits,  however,  belong  to  a  stage  which 
this  rather  variable  painter  has  long  since  left  behind  him. 
He  now  paints  chiefly  women  and  children,  in  pictures  which 
are  a  little  vague  in  characterization  but  pleasing  in  color, 
though  sometimes  a  trifle  flowery.  A  man  who  has  finally 
become  a  more  genuine  painter  is  Find,  who  after  inclining 
first  toward  the  old  Danish  bourgeois-democratic  and  then 
toward  the  modern  French  artistic-aristocratic  tendency, 
finally  attached  himself  to  the  latter,  and  under  Bonnard 


384 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

^  ■ 


Figure  Group,  by  Sigurd  Wandel 

and  Vulllard  developed  a  bright,  clean  palette  and  a  fresh 
technique,  especially  noticeable  in  his  pictures  of  children,  of 
which  he  seems  successfully  to  be  making  his  specialty. 
Schouboe  occupies  rather  an  unusual  position  on  account  of 
his  choice  of  subjects:  he  is  one  of  the  few  Danish  artists 
of  talent  who  has  taken  up  the  study  of  the  youthful  nude 
in  the  sunshine  of  springtime,  and  in  his  treatment  of  this 
theme  he  has  shown  a  fine  feeling  for  harmony  and  grace 
of  line.  An  artist  who  has  consistently  endeavored  to  con- 
fine his  portrayal  of  humanity  within  controlled  and  sober 
outlines  is  Vedel ;  his  weakness  is  working  out  color  schemes 
a  little  too  elaborately  after  the  manner  of  the  old  masters, 
but  in  spite  of  this  the  movement  in  his  portraits  is  free  and 
unhampered  by  the  style  he  cultivates.  Very  much  the  same 
may  be  said  of  Tetens,  of  Tycho  Jessen,  and  especially  of 
Wandel,  who  of  the  three  is  much  the  most  important.  At 
first,  Wandel  also  showed  a  desire  to  surround  the  person- 
ages in  his  portraits  with  the  rigid  ceremonial  of  style,  but, 
for  all  his  intentions,  life  got  the  better  of  him,  and  he  seems 


DANISM   ARI"   IN    \HE  XIX   C1:M  I  KV      38: 


Landscape,  by  Svend  Hammershoi 


finally  to  have  abandoned  his  pretension  to  style  in  order 
to  give  himself  over  to  greater  delight  in  painting  his  chil- 
dren or  their  mother  or  merely  his  fellow-men  just  as  he 
sees  them  and  loves  them  in  everyday  existence.  The  re- 
quirements of  style  have  been  most  stubbornly  upheld  by  two 
landscape  painters,  Svend  Hammershoi  and  Mohl;  each  in 
his  own  way  treats  nature  decoratively,  using  large  mass 
effects  and  big,  sweeping  lines. 

Both  these  artists  engage  in  handicraft  as  well  as  paint- 
ing. Hammershoi  is  successful  as  a  designer  of  ceramics 
and  silverware,  Mohl  no  less  successful  with  embroidery  and 
tapestry.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  almost  all  the  artists 
we  have  so  far  mentioned  in  this  chapter  on  the  quest  of  style 
in  recent  Danish  painting  have  concerned  themselves  with 
one  or  more  of  the  decorative  arts.  The  decorative  has 
gained  a  leading  position  in  the  interest  of  all  of  them.  This 
would  certainly  have  been  dangerous  to  the  fresh  study  of 
nature,  which  must  always  remain  the  source  of  all  art,  espe- 


386 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


dally  of  painting,  if  Denmark  had  not  been  a  place  where  no 
movement  ever  runs  its  full  course.  Every  action,  in  critical 
and  temperate  Denmark,  brings  a  reaction  on  its  heels,  and 
thus  the  quest  of  style  was  accompanied  by  a  counter-tend- 
ency from  the  very  moment,  one  might  say,  that  it  got 
started  in  earnest.  To  this  reaction  something  was  perhaps 
contributed  by  the  retrospect  of  old  Danish  art  afforded  by 
the  Copenhagen  Art  Society's  inclusive  exhibitions  and  pub- 
lications dealing  with  the  old  Danish  masters.  These  made 
it  easy  to  see  how  much  had  been  lost,  and  how  little  had 
been  gained.  The  greatest  gain,  it  appeared,  was  a  certain 
festive  quality  of  style — the  most  serious  loss  simplicity  of 
mind.  A  few  young  provincial  artists,  pupils  of  Zahrtmann, 
then  began  to  receive  a  great  deal  of  attention,  because  they 
had  not  merely  preserved  that  precious  quality  to  an  excep- 
tional degree,  but  had  made  it  tell  in  their  painting,  thanks 


^^. 


Hunting  Wild  Ducks,  by  Johannes  Larsen 


l)y\NlSll  AkI'   IN   nil':  XIX  CI'N'JL'RV     3.S7 


Dante  and  Beatrice  In  Paradise,  by  Poul  Christiansen 


to  the  demonstratively  frank  manner  that  was  all  their  own. 
One  member  of  this  group  is  the  flower  painter  Harald 
Holm,  who  is  not  meticulous  in  his  choice  of  flowers,  but,  in 
his  fresh  and  confident  way,  takes  them  wherever  he  finds 
them  in  the  greatest  possible  profusion  and  splendor.  An- 
other member  of  the  group  is  Johannes  Larsen,  who  has  the 
unsophisticated  attitude  of  a  hunter  toward  the  living  things 
in  nature,  and  paints  wild  birds  with  vigorous  characteriza- 
tion and  unaffected  coloring.  A  third  member  is  Poul 
Christiansen,  an  able  landscape  painter,  who  boldly  defies 
his  rustic  heaviness  of  hand  and  Inspires  great  respect  for 
his  courage,  even  when  he  aims  his  somewhat  awkward 
flight  at  lofty  subjects — from  the  Bible,  for  instance,  or  from 


388 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Country  Road  at  Karise,  by  Poul  Christiansen 


Dante's  poems.  The  others,  Karl  Schou,  Peter  Hansen, 
and  especially  Syberg,  the  central  figure  of  the  group,  stay 
close  to  the  earth,  and  their  strength  Is  their  capacity  for 
perceiving  with  all  their  senses  what  belongs  to  earth  and 
to  reality.  Schou  is  a  painter  of  interiors  and  of  landscapes, 
and  in  both  fields  he  has  carried  the  study  of  atmosphere  to 
the  last  degree  of  refinement.  Peter  Hansen,  who  paints 
landscapes  and  figures,  is  a  rather  commonplace  observer, 
but  there  is  something  engaging  In  his  honesty  and  his  dex- 
terity. The  one  who  Is  most  typical  of  the  group's  new, 
strong  naturalism  is  Syberg,  who  sets  forth  the  earth  and 
reality  with  a  peasant's  robust  indifference  to  whether  the 
Impressions  of  his  senses  are  beautiful  or  not.  He  breathes 
the  stench  of  a  pigsty,  the  exhalations  of  a  nursery,  the  fresh- 
ness of  newly  turned  sod,  or  the  perfume  of  a  blossoming 
fruit-tree  with  the  same  sense  of  physical  satisfaction,  and 
expects  those  who  look  at  his  pictures  to  do  the  same.  He 
attaches  Importance  to  the  strength,  not  the  delicacy,  of 
colors,  and  is  never  afraid  of  showing  things  as  they  are. 


DANISH  ART  IN   TUJl  XIX  CENTURY     389 


On  the  Ice  at  Faaborg,  by  Peter  Hansen 


He  prefers  to  be  and  to  remain  as  he  is — if  not  exactly 
clumsy,  at  least  heavy  and  hard-handed  in  execution,  rather 
than  be  tempted  by  a  fluent  touch  to  become  superficial.  In 
his  strong  and  primitive  media  (frequently  ink  and  water- 
color)  he  often  attains  what  he  aims  at:  a  presentation  full 
of  feeling  and  character,  free  from  the  insipidity  which  often 
accompanies  over-refinement. 

Such  is  the  bulwark  on  that  side — a  sound  naturalism, 
which  although  broader  and  simpler  in  its  point  of  view 
than  that  of  the  old  Danish  masters,  is  closely  related  to 
theirs,  and  in  its  own  way  is  no  less  Danish.  One  may  say 
that  from  Eckersberg  to  Syberg  there  was,  on  the  whole, 
an  unbroken  continuity  in  Danish  art.  As  a  rule  It  accepted 
only  what  could  be  reconciled  with  Its  moderate  Danish 
temper;  even  Danish  poster  art,  such  as  the  work  of  the 
talented  and,  for  that  matter,  strongly  Europeanized 
draughtsman  Valdemar  Andersen,  is  recognizable  In  many 
ways  as  Intended  for  Copenhagen  and  not  for  Paris  or 
London.  Toward  Paris  all  artistic  eyes  In  Denmark  were 
once  more  turned.  Great  and  noteworthy  artists  had  again 
made  their  appearance  there.  Yet  the  effect  of  Impression- 
Ism  on  Danish  art  was  so  slight  that  all  one  can  accurately 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Spring,  by  Fritz  Syberg 


say  is  that  It  was  not  without  influence,  and  no  more  can  be 
said  for  the  effect  of  syntheslsm.  The  extreme  representa- 
tives of  this  tendency  were  recognized  and  appreciated  In 
Denmark  even  earher  than  In  France  Itself,  but  they  were 
not  imitated.  For  In  their  time  art  was  still  Individual 
property,  and  there  was  no  glory  In  appropriating  it.  Re- 
cently, as  we  know,  It  has  been  otherwise.  Appealing  to 
the  example  of  Cezanne,  van  Gogh,  and  Gauguin  and  de- 
claring that  everything  depended  on  accepting  the  last  and 
utmost  consequences  of  their  view,  certain  artists  in  France 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  new  century  undertook  to  break 
away  from  the  thousand-year-old  traditions  of  art.  Paint- 
ing, despite  all  differences  of  opinion  about  it  and  about  all 
Its  manifold  forms  and  aims,  had  Invariably  been  looked  on 
hitherto  as  the  reflection  of  the  outer  world  In  the  eyes  of  an 
artist,  who  was  free  to  look  upon  it  as  he  could  and  as  he 
would.  All  sorts  of  new  theories  now  arose,  according  to 
which  art  should  be  something  Independent  of  nature,  some- 
thing decorative  and  suggestive,  with  the  sovereign  right 
of  transforming  nature  Into  something  completely  unrecog- 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     391 

nizable.  What  might  have  been  conceded  as  an  endurable 
and  permissible  privilege  to  some  one  great  artist,  was 
exalted — or  rather  debased — to  a  privilege  for  any  and 
every  upstart  painter.  "Expressionism"  was  the  name  of 
the  privilege,  Matisse  was  the  grand  initiator  of  the  world 
into  its  secrets — until  the  headlong  development  passed  over 
him,  too,  and  Picasso  and  his  cubism  attained  an  even  more 
suddenly  acquired  reputation. 

All  over  the  world  this  movement  found  throngs  of  sup- 
porters. In  all  the  exhibitions  one  met  them,  and  as  they 
were  more  anxious  to  adhere  to  the  method  than  to  stand 
on  their  own  legs  as  artists,  they  were  pretty  much  alike, 
whether  French  or  Russian,  German  or  Swedish.  The 
movement  appeared  in  Denmark,  also,  but  here,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  custom  of  the  country,  it  took  a  far  more 
moderate  form  than  elsewhere.  In  this  little  country  it  was 
perhaps  easier  than  in  a  big  country  to  maintain  a  judicial 
attitude,  to  distinguish  real  talent  and  ability  from  the  mere 
use  of  the  convenient,  almost  exclusively  colorlstic,  formulae 
which  the  new  school  had  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
cealing a  lack  of  capacity  or  a  lack  of  training  and  study. 
In  any  case  it  is  still  too  soon  to  pass  judgment  In  a  historical 
survey  such  as  this  on  the  young  Danish  artists  who  have 
attached  themselves  more  or  less  Intimately  to  the  most 
recent  tendencies  In  painting.  Swane,  Naur,  Rude,  Scharff, 
Glerslng,  Wele,  Salto,  are  the  names  of  a  few  of  them. 
They  are  not  too  Intolerant  to  associate  amicably  In  the 
Exhibition  in  Gronnlngen,  the  latest  secession  In  the  annals 
of  Copenhagen  art  exhibitions,  with  Syberg  and  a  few  of 
his  group  as  well  as  with  such  neutrals  as  these:  Knud  Kyhn, 
who  Is  an  able  and  fresh  observer  of  wild  bird  life;  Viggo 
Madsen,  who  has  a  nice  talent  for  Interiors;  Rostrup  Boye- 
sen,  who  has  the  merit,  among  others,  of  having  discovered 
possibilities  of  picturesque  beauty  In  such  apparently  ugly 
places  as  the  new  tenement  districts  In  the  outskirts  of  the 
Danish  capital;  Aksel  Jorgensen,  In  whom  there  Is  likely 
material  for  a  forcible — If  anything  too  forcible — delineator 
of  the  tame  night-llfe  of  Copenhagen;  Niels  Hansen,  who 


392  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

still  stands  by  Manet  and  in  his  spirit  paints  portraits  which 
show  rapid  characterization.  It  must,  of  course,  be  left  to 
the  future  finally  and  correctly  to  judge  painters  like  these, 
who  are  still  young  and,  in  some  cases,  still  undeveloped. 

Such  is  the  Danish  painting  of  the  moment,  distributed 
ev^ery  spring  among  two  or  three  different  exhibitions,  yet 
not  difficult  to  combine  into  a  single  impression.  Despite 
the  recent  movements  in  foreign  directions,  it  has  persistently 
shown  its  national  temper.  It  has  recognized  restrictions 
which  are  mainly  the  result  of  the  limitations  of  the  passion- 
less Danish  temperament.  It  has  perhaps  shown  its  Danish 
nature  most  definitely  on  the  negative  side  of  the  sober, 
critical  Danish  character,  with  its  sensitive  instinct  for  shun- 
ning the  ridiculous  under  all  circumstances.  There  has 
always  been  very  little  of  the  ridiculous  in  Danish  painting. 
Unfortunately,  there  was  usually  a  lack  of  the  sublime  as 
well.  Was  it  dread  of  the  ridiculous  that  was  to  blame  for 
the  rarity  in  Denmark  of  approaches  to  the  sublime?  Not 
entirely.  Only  genius  attains  the  sublime,  and  Danish  paint- 
ing has  always  been  as  lacking  in  genius  as  it  has  been  rich 
in  first  rate  talent.  This  more  moderate  degree  of  artistic 
endowment  combined  with  the  moderate  Danish  character 
to  impose  limits  on  Danish  painting.  In  the  narrowness  of 
these  limits  lies  the  weakness  of  Danish  painting;  but  at 
least  it  has  always  known  its  own  limits.  Hence  its  inherent 
truthfulness,  and  hence,  again,  its  strength. 


IX 
SCULPTURE 

IN  THE  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  several  Swedish 
painters  anci  one  or  two  Norwegians  had  emigrated,  and 
thanks  to  their  accompHshments,  had  exercised  a  definite, 
though  slight,  influence  in  one  or  another  of  the  foreign 
art  centers.  There  was  no  opportunity  for  Danes  to  exer- 
cise any  such  influence,  because,  as  we  have  seen,  they  clung 
too  closely  to  their  native  land.  On  the  other  hand  the  great 
Danish  sculptor,  Thorvaldsen,  made  a  greater  contribution 
to  the  artistic  history  of  the  world  than  all  other  Scandina- 
vians together. 

The  story  of  this  neglected  child  of  the  proletariat,  de- 
scribed by  a  contemporary  as  late  as  his  twenty-seventh  year 
as  "a  lazy  hound,"  who,  once  transplanted  to  classical  soil 
and  exposed  in  the  capital  of  the  artistic  world  to  Intellectual 
Influences  from  all  directions  and  from  all  periods,  ripened 
and  mellowed  like  the  fruit  of  the  vine,  will  always  remain  a 
marvel.  It  was  not  really  quite  so  unaccountable  as  It  ap- 
pears. When  he  arrived  In  Rome  In  1797,  he  unquestion- 
ably had  already  received  more  artistic  cultivation  than  Is 
usually  realized,  for  the  soil,  or,  if  one  prefers,  the  academy, 
from  which  he  came,  was  by  no  means  deficient  In  such 
cultivation.  The  same  Copenhagen  soil  had  already  pro- 
duced Trippel  and  Carstens.  Ablldgaard  and  Wiedewelt 
had  been  teaching  there.  Ablldgaard  was  one  of  the  most 
thorough,  learned,  and  conscientious  painters  In  Europe  at 
that  period ;  Wiedewelt  was  one  of  the  most  zealous  of  those 
who  were  working  to  emancipate  art  from  the  prevailing 
French  style  and  encourage  the  taste  for  the  antique.  The 
artistic  atmosphere  which  they  breathed  in  the  Danish  cap- 

393 


394  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

ital  was  of  greater  significance,  not  only  to  Thorvaldsen  but 
to  Trippel  and  Carstens,  than  is  usually  realized.  It  was 
of  greater  importance  to  Thorvaldsen  than  to  the  others; 
whereas  Carstens — not  to  mention  Trippel — had  been 
affected  by  all  kinds  of  powerful  influences  from  Germany 
before  he  went  to  Rome,  Thorvaldsen  was  more  exclusively 
the  product  of  Copenhagen  and  Rome.  He  went  straight 
to  ancient  Italy  by  way  of  Gibraltar,  thereby  escaping  Ger- 
man rococo,  North  Italian  Renaissance,  and  all  the  other 
conflicting  impressions  which  he  would  have  received  if  he 
had  travelled  overland.  He  arrived  in  Rome  in  time  to 
find  Carstens  still  living;  and  in  Zoega  he  became  acquainted 
with  a  disciple  of  Winckelmann;  from  the  former  he  ex- 
tracted the  quintessence  of  understanding  of  the  antique, 
and  from  the  latter  of  knowledge  of  the  antique,  without 
himself  drawing  a  line  or  reading  a  book.  He  moreover 
had  the  advantage  of  finding  the  situation,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  history  of  art,  arranged  and  prepared  for  his 
coming.  The  struggle  against  the  old  style,  the  rococo,  had 
ended  in  victory  for  the  new  classicism,  antique  in  spirit,  in 
so  far  as  it  had  gained  a  foothold  in  all  countries  and  in  all 
fields  of  art.  Yet  it  was  plainly  evident  that  the  dreams  of 
that  generation  of  a  rebirth  of  Greek  art  had  not  yet  been 
realized  In  the  works  of  Mengs  or  Battoni,  of  Angelica 
Kaufmann  or  David,  of  Carstens  or  Flaxman.  It  was  for 
the  most  part  a  dream  devoid  of  color,  a  dream  of  a  world 
In  marble,  and  it  seemed  vain  to  expect  its  fulfilment  of 
painters  such  as  these — or  of  artists  who  drew  in  outline,  like 
the  two  last-named.  Only  a  sculptor  could  yield  the  period 
what  It  longed  for.  It  was  a  sculptor,  the  great  Canova, 
who  satisfied  the  period  until  a  greater  still,  Thorvaldsen, 
came  with  his  creations  of  a  purer  clay.  One  of  the  Impuri- 
ties in  Canova's  classicism  was  the  over-refined,  saccharine 
form,  a  morbidezza  recalling  Bernini;  another  unclasslcal 
element  was  the  lingering  Southern  sensuality;  a  third  was 
his  propensity  for  the  languishing  and  sentimental;  a  fourth, 
the  Italian  virtuosity  of  his  touch.  From  all  these  Thorvald- 
sen kept  himself  free.     As  the  latest  to  follow  the  dream- 


DANISH  ART  IN  TITF  XIX  CENTURY     395 


Jason,  by  Thorvaldsen 

path  to  distant  Hellas,  he  had  everything  In  his  favor.  The 
shipwrecks  of  his  predecessors  marked  for  him  the  reefs  he 
must  avoid.  He  was  quietly  occupied  during  his  first  years 
in  Rome,  looking  over  the  situation  and  adapting  himself  to 
it.  He  was  really  master  of  the  situation  when,  in  1802, 
he  began  work  for  the  second  time,  after  he  had  smashed 
his  first  model  in  a  moment  of  despondency,  upon  his  Jason. 


396  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  halls  and  alcoves  of  his  museum  In  Copenhagen  con- 
tain nearly  200  statues  or  projects  for  statues,  130  busts,  and 
330  reliefs  (including  three  large  slabs),  In  all  about  650 
works,  or  several  thousand  figures,  from  his  hand.  The 
first  impression  one  receives  there  is  of  tremendous  creative 
power.  The  next  impression  is  one  of  bewilderment  at  the 
prodigious  range  that  he  covers:  The  Life  of  the  Gods, 
The  Life  and  Acts  of  Cupid,  The  Lives  of  the  Heroes,  The 
Bible  and  Christian  Allegory,  Portrait  Statues  and  Busts — 
all  these  are  categories  of  the  work  he  left  to  posterity.  One 
soon  notices,  however,  that  throughout  this  vast  production 
there  is  only  one  spirit  and  one  style.  This  unity  depends 
less  on  uniformity  than  on  what  Is  almost  the  greatest 
adaptability  any  artist  has  ever  shown.  His  contempo- 
raries, who  overwhelmed  Thorvaldsen  with  commissions, 
credited  him,  not  unjustifiably,  with  a  talent  for  everything. 
He  could  do  everything,  after  a  fashion.  After  a  fashion! 
For  his  adaptability  consisted,  one  should  note,  not  In  a 
capacity  to  accommodate  his  OAvn  nature  to  his  task,  but  In  a 
capacity  to  bring  each  task  within  the  limits  of  his  nature 
and  put  Into  the  accomplishment  of  it  something  of  his 
nature's  beauty.  His  spirit  dwelt  permanently — hence  Its 
beauty — In  a  state  of  deep,  unchangeable,  almost  beatific 
peace;  Julius  Lange,  the  well  known  Danish  art  historian, 
has  correctly  pointed  out  the  fundamental  Importance  of  this 
mental  attitude  of  Thorvaldsen's  in  his  choice  and  treatment 
of  subjects.  He  represented  Heracles  as  resting  between 
his  labors.  Mars  as  the  peace-bringing  god  of  war.  Hector 
as  the  husband  and  father,  Achilles  as  the  lover  of  Brisels 
or  as  the  friend  of  Patrocles — he  never  showed  any  of  the 
blood-drenched  heroes  of  the  Iliad  In  action.  He  glorified 
Napoleon,  disturber  of  the  world's  peace,  as  the  peacemaker 
in  his  Alexander's  Progress.  He  treated  the  heroes  of  the 
cycle  of  wars  ended  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna  In  this  same 
peaceful  spirit,  and  similarly  he  represented  Christ,  not  In 
some  moment  of  strife  or  sorrow,  but  as  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
stretching  out  his  arms  that  all  mankind  may  find  refuge  in 
his  bosom.      Parallel  with  his  treatment  In  this  spirit  of 


DANISH   ARr  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     397 


Mercury  as  the  Slayer  of  Argus,  by  Thorvaldsen 


mythology,  of  the  Bible,  of  history,  or  of  his  own  contem- 
poraries, there  runs  through  all  Thorvaldsen's  work  the  long 
series  of  representations  of  the  beneficent  powers  of  peace 
and  harmony,  especially  Love,  and  the  Muses,  the  Graces, 
the  Genii,  which  swarmed  forth  from  his  fancy  whenever  he 
had  a  moment  of  leisure  from  his  greater  tasks. 


398 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Day  and  Night,  bj'  Thorvaldsen 


There  is  something  monumental  in  his  figures'  conformity 
to  type;  but  it  is  not  Greek.  That  "race  of  blissful  seers, 
dreamers,  and  thinkers,"  as  Lange  has  described  the  popu- 
lation of  Thorvaldsen's  world,  differs  from  the  prouder  and 
stronger  race  which  ancient  art  has  preserved  for  us  in  mar- 
ble. Not  even  in  classical  painting,  which  exercised  an  espe- 
cially strong  influence  on  Thorvaldsen,  as  it  was  the  first 
form  of  art  with  which  he  had  become  acquainted,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  he  had  arrived  in  Italy  by  sea  and  landed  in 
Naples — not  even  in  classical  painting  does  life  take  on  any 
such  aspect  as  in  Thorvaldsen's  work,  of  happy  dolce  far 
nlente,  of  happy  idleness.  Even  less  Greek  than  the  aspect 
of  life  is  the  aspect  of  the  human  body  in  Thorvaldsen's 
work.  In  the  work  of  Phidias  or  Praxiteles  (to  whom  the 
Danish  sculptor  was  likened  by  his  admiring  contempo- 
raries) the  beauty  of  the  human  body  depends  to  a  great 
extent  on  something  beautifully  corporeal,  on  a  physical 
warmth,  which  is  lacking  in  Thorvaldsen's  art  and  must 
necessarily  be  lacking,  if  only  for  the  reason  that  it  would 
never  be  possible  to  reproduce  the  favorable  conditions 
under  which  the  Greeks  were  able  to  cultivate  the  study  of 
the  nude.  This  should  not,  however,  be  understood  as  a 
confirmation  of  the  too  often  repeated  criticism  of  Thor- 
valdsen's art,  that  his  work  is  lifeless  and  cold.     Relatively, 


DANISH  AKl    IN    llll<:  XIX  CKN  I  UKY      399 

this  is  true,  especially  in  comparison  with  the  Greek;  but 
absolutely,  it  is  not  true,  and  it  is  actually  untrue  if  one  com- 
pares it  with  the  related  art  of  the  same  period.  Far  more 
than  most  of  his  contemporaries,  Thorvaldsen  realized  the 
necessity  for  the  study  of  nature.  Whereas  Carstens  scorned 
the  use  of  models,  Thorvaldsen  considered  the  study  of 
models  indispensable,  even  for  masters.  Of  course  one  can- 
not talk,  in  his  case,  of  strict  and  thorough  study  of  nature; 
what  he  did  was  to  allow  himself  to  be  inspired  by  his  model, 
rather  than  to  attempt  to  copy  his  model  directly.  But, 
however  inadequate  his  study  of  models  may  have  been  in 
itself,  it  was  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  keep  his  lines  fresher, 
more  lifelike,  and  freer  from  convention  than  could  those 
of  his  contemporaries  whose  efforts,  like  his,  were  directed 
toward  beauty  of  style  in  figure  sculpture.  Two  often  re- 
peated anecdotes  call  attention  to  some  of  the  fine  threads, 
otherwise  invisible — but  by  no  means  imperceptible — by 
which  the  lovely  line-spinning  of  his  Imagination  was  con- 
nected with  his  life.  One  Is  the  story  of  how  his  Mercury 
owed  its  existence  to  the  chance  that  he  one  day  saw  a  young 
Roman  sitting  In  a  doorway  in  an  attitude  which  struck  him 
as  pleasing  In  Its  ease  and  relaxation.  The  other  story, 
which  is  similar,  tells  how,  while  he  was  working  on  his 
Ganymede,  he  surprised  his  model,  in  a  moment  of  rest,  In 
an  attitude  which  he  reproduced  literally  in  his  Shepherd 
Boy.  The  fact  that  these  two  anecdotes  were  collected  and 
preserved  as  evidence  of  the  Importance  of  living  motifs  to 
his  Inventive  faculty  simply  goes  to  show  that,  as  one  might 
be  inclined  to  Infer  from  the  whole  character  of  his  work, 
his  Invention  was  dependent  to  only  a  very  slight  degree  on 
motifs  which  he  found  in  actual  life.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  two  stories  also  show  that  he  by  no  means  disdained  such 
ready  and  available  motifs  as  were  offered  him  by  the  beau- 
tiful Italian  populace.  With  his  keen  sense  of  beauty,  he 
naturally  had  a  keen  eye  for  the  wealth  of  material  of  this 
kind  with  which  he  was  surrounded  and  there  can  be 
scarcely  any  doubt  that  if  one  could  analyze  the  conception 
of  beauty  that  he  developed  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  Italy, 


400 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Christ,  by  Thorvaldsen 


one  would  find  many  elements  of  the  half-unconscious,  fleet- 
ing and  yet  lasting  impressions  from  the  same  quarter  from 
which  Mercury  and  the  Shepherd  Lad  found  their  way  into 
his  art. 

What  is  most  characteristic  about  Thorvaldsen,  however, 
what  is  inexplicable,  and  really  a  mark  of  genius,  is  that  his 


DANISH  ART  IN  'JIIi:  XIX  CJ:N  ILIRY     401 

conception  of  beauty  will  not  submit  to  analysis.  Although 
in  so  many  respects  it  was  the  product  of  education,  it  is 
insoluble,  almost  like  a  product  of  nature.  All  that  his 
genius  acquired  from  outside — the  impression  of  nature  and 
tlie  impression  of  the  antique — it  remodelled  in  its  own 
image.  All  rose  together  to  a  higher  unity,  in  a  single  great 
synthesis — his  style. 

From  first  to  last,  his  style — omitting  unessential  shadings 
— was  unalterably  uniform,  both  in  his  statues  and  in  his 
reliefs.  He  himself  had  hardly  any  other  purpose  in  his  art 
than  to  attain  the  truest  possible  balance,  outwardly  and  in- 
wardly, and  that  harmony  of  line  which,  according  to  his 
contemporaries,  constituted  the  essential  excellence  of  an- 
cient art.  When  his  work  satisfied  him  In  these  respects,  he 
felt  that  his  own  share  In  them  was  finished,  and  he  often 
left  the  final  execution  to  his  pupils.  Usually  he  put  on  some 
finishing  touches  with  his  own  hand,  but  his  work  in  general 
lacks  the  vitalizing  breath  with  which  an  Inspired  artist 
animates  the  surface  of  his  work.  That  Is  one  reason  for 
the  deficiency,  which  one  feels  In  his  figures,  of  Immediately 
perceptible  subjectivity.  His  figures,  as  Lange  has  pointed 
out,  give  but  feeble  utterance  to  subjectivity,  because  they 
are  much  more  strongly  Inclined  to  retire  within  themselves 
than  to  advance  toward  the  spectator  as  messengers  from 
their  creator's  Imaginary  world.  In  this  modesty,  this  shy- 
ness of  theirs,  Lange  says, — there  Is  "something  which  In 
a  striking  manner  suggests  the  ancient  Greek  feeling  for 
the  sacred  limitations  of  human  nature,  for  that  bashfulness, 
which  acts  as  a  guardian  of  morality  and  at  the  same  time 
gives  charm  to  humanity:" — ^yet  which  Is  not  exactly  the 
same,  "because  the  bearing  of  the  Greek  figures  Is  fresher, 
more  powerful,  more  energetic." 

Thorvaldsen's  contemporaries  noticed  only  the  similari- 
ties, not  the  discrepancies,  between  his  style  and  the  classical. 
That  the  dreamland  whither  they  saw  him  borne  by  his 
fancy,  which  certainly  was  gleaming  with  "white  marble  and 
ethereal  air" — that  this  dreamland  was  Greece,  none  of 
them  doubted.    They  never  suspected  that  It  was  only  a  dis- 


402  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

tant  mirage,  much  less  that  this  mirage,  with  its  distinctively 
cool,  clear,  pure  and  calm  reproduction  of  antiquity,  was 
really  nothing  more  than  a  reflection  of  Greece  on  a  North- 
ern artist's  soul.  Without  any  reservation  they  acclaimed  in 
Thorvaldsen  the  rebirth  of  Hellenism.  One  need  not  have 
much  experience  of  history  to  realize  that  they  were  neces- 
sarily wrong.  Obviously  a  man  born  at  the  end  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  in  a  Copenhagen  lane,  with  an  Icelander  for 
father  and  a  Jutland  girl  for  mother,  could  not  transform 
himself  into  an  ancient  Greek.  It  would  have  been  nothing 
less  than  a  subversion  of  a  part  of  the  order  of  the  universe 
if  such  a  thing  had  come  to  pass,  and  such  a  subversion  not 
even  the  greatest  genius  can  produce.  The  mistake  is  easy 
to  explain.  Though  Thorvaldsen  was  entirely  devoid  of 
higher  education  and  therefore  disdained  all  the  require- 
ments which  the  aesthetes  of  the  time  exacted  of  the  edu- 
cated artist,  he  none  the  less  appeared  to  his  contempo- 
raries to  be  the  fulfilment  of  their  aesthetic  theory;  if  all  the 
dreams  and  expectations  of  the  period  were  fulfilled  in  him, 
it  was  primarily  because  what  they  had  been  dreaming  of 
and  longing  for  with  glowing  passion  was  not,  fundament- 
ally, the  rebirth  of  ancient  art  or  of  the  classical  conception 
of  the  human  figure,  but  the  rebirth  of  the  actual  human 
spirit  of  antiquity.  Something  of  the  most  primitive  and 
happy  quality  of  that  spirit,  something  of  its  purity  and 
serenity,  something  of  all  that  which  in  Europe  generally 
life  had  almost  poisoned  and  erudition  had  almost  cor- 
rupted, was  brought  on  the  world's  artistic  stage  about  1800 
by  this  youth  who  had  neither  read  nor  lived.  It  was  no 
mere  accident  that  he  came  from  an  obscure  little  country. 
Only  from  an  out-of-the-way  corner  of  the  world,  where  life 
had  stood  still  for  centuries,  where  the  primitive  spirit  of 
humanity  had  been  preserved,  could  an  artist  have  come  with 
such  pristine  simplicity  as  his.  Appearing  at  the  opportune 
and  decisive  moment,  this  was  Denmark's  most  significant 
contribution  to  the  culture  of  the  world. 

:):  5ls  ^  jH  He 


DANISH  ARF   IN    llUi  XIX  C1<:N'JURY     403 

If  one  asks  what  was  Thorvaldscii's  significance  to  the 
art  of  his  own  country,  particuhirly  to  Danish  sculpture, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  great  example  had  a  stimu- 
lating eHect  on  his  younger  contemporaries.  Such  a  strong 
light,  however,  must  throw  deep  shadows,  in  which  others 
thrive  with  difficulty;  there  was  one  man,  especially,  who 
found  this  to  be  the  case — Freund. 

Although  born  in  Germany  (in  the  neighborhood  of 
Bremen,  in  1786),  he  subsequently  belonged  with  all  his 
heart  to  Denmark,  whither  he  had  fled  during  the  war  to 
avoid  being  drafted  into  Napoleon's  army.  An  indication 
of  his  original  tendency  is  the  fact  that  during  a  stay  in 
Florence,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  he  was  seized  with  an  ardent 
enthusiasm  for  Michelangelo,  who,  as  we  know.  In  the  first 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  almost  universally  dis- 
paraged. Yet  no  sooner  had  he  reached  Rome  than  he  fell 
under  the  Influence  of  antiquity,  as  the  result  of  his  associa- 
tion with  Thorvaldsen,  who  took  a  liking  to  the  young  artist, 
but  also  knew  how  to  make  use  of  him.  Despite  the  pressure 
of  Thorvaldsen's  authority,  Freund's  personality  quickly 
found  an  outlet,  as  fortunate  as  It  was  accidental.  A  violent 
controversy  had  long  been  raging  In  Denmark  over  "the 
suitability  of  Norse  Mythology  for  artistic  representation," 
which  had  led  several  members  of  the  Scandinavian  literary 
fraternity  to  Invite  artists  to  attempt  subjects  In  the  Old 
Norse  spirit.  As  Freund  had  taken  part  In  the  competi- 
tions and  had  been  awarded  several  prizes,  he  felt  called 
upon  to  go  further  in  the  same  direction  with  a  frieze  in 
which  he  undertook  to  set  forth  all  the  figures  and  incidents 
In  the  saga  of  the  Norse  gods.  His  friends  at  home  suc- 
ceeded in  securing  for  him  a  commission  for  such  a  frieze  In 
the  newly-built  Christiansborg;  he  soon  saw,  however,  that 
he  must  limit  himself  to  the  treatment  of  the  Ragnarok 
myth,  and  even  this  task  proved  to  be  so  inclusive  that  he 
could  complete  only  certain  portions  of  It  with  his  own 
hands,  leaving  the  rest  to  be  executed  by  others  from  his 
sketches.  Unfortunately  all  the  work  was  destroyed  when 
the  palace  was  burnt  in  1884,  and  Is  known  only  from  a  series 


404 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Loki,  original  model,  by  H.  E.  Fieund 

of  lithographs.  Even  from  these  one  can  see  what  a  flaming 
imagination  the  young  artist  had.  To  be  sure,  the  style  of 
the  frieze  is  a  little  uneven,  in  many  places  too  Greek  for 
the  Norse  subjects,  in  others  too  baroque  for  the  classical 
stamp  of  the  rest.  Not  without  reason  the  most  powerful 
parts  of  this  frieze  have  been  compared  to  the  Battle  of  the 
Giants  at  Pergamos,  and  here,  also,  traces  have  been  recog- 
nized of  the  impression  that  Michelangelo  had  made  on 
Freund.  Wild  pathos  interchanges  with  bold  fancy  and 
delicate  charm.  Surtr  with  his  flaming  sword  is  gripping, 
and  so,  too,  is  Thor,  swinging  his  hammer.  Most  impressive 
of  all,  perhaps,  is  the  wily  Loki,  wearing  the  winged  cloak 
of  the  bat,  with  whispered  words  on  his  lips,  a  figure  which 
Freund  had  already  produced  as  a  statuette,  before  he 
carved  the  relief;  in  that  form  it  has  remained  his  most 
popular  work  in  Denmark. 


DANISH  ART  IN  TIIR  XIX   CENTURY     40: 


The  Goddess  of  Fate,  by  H.  E.  Freund 


Unfortunately  his  powers  were  not  utilized  to  the  extent 
they  deserved.  He  had,  for  instance,  the  possibilities  of  a 
great  portrait  sculptor,  but  he  rarely  received  commissions 
for  busts.  He  had  to  devote  most  of  his  time  to  grave- 
stones, which  he  frequently  decorated  with  ingenious  bas- 
reliefs.  His  relief  style  appears  to  great  advantage  in  the 
representation  of  the  mysteriously  veiled  Goddess  of  Fate 
scanning  her  book,  and  in  the  noble  figure  of  a  mourning 
woman  on  the  medal  commemorating  the  death  of  Frederik 
VI.  Even  in  such  works  as  these  something  appears  of  the 
dark  and  deep,  dolorous  and  dreamy  strain,  which  was  the 
basic  element  in  Freund's  imaginative  existence.    His  Imagi- 


406  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

nation,  however,  had  practically  exhausted  itself  in  the  Rag- 
narok  frieze;  at  any  rate,  after  his  return  from  Italy  he 
turned  more  and  more  toward  strict  classicism,  and  in  his 
later  years  he  stood  in  the  estimation  of  the  younger  genera- 
tion as  its  confirmed  representative.  To  this  view  of  his  per- 
sonality the  house  that  he  fitted  out  for  himself  in  Copen- 
hagen was  largely  responsible :  not  only  the  Interior  decora- 
tion but  the  furniture  and  fixtures  were. carried  out  in  the 
Pompeian  style  by  young  artists  working  from  Freund's 
drawing.  It  was  here  that  Hilker  had  his  first  experience  as 
a  decorative  painter,  here,  too,  Kobke  and  Constantin  Han- 
sen— to  the  detriment  of  the  first,  but  to  the  profit  of  the 
second — acquired  even  before  their  journey  to  Rome  more 
plastic  sense  and  more  sense  of  style  than  they  had  learned 
from  Eckersberg.  Thus  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  (until 
his  all  too  early  death  in  1840)  Freund  set  his  stamp  on  the 
development  of  Danish  art.  Yet  leaving  out  of  considera- 
tion two  medallists,  Chrlstensen  and  Conradsen,  trained 
under  his  supervision,  he  exercised  his  Influence  more 
through  his  taste  than  through  his  work,  which  perhaps  owed 
Its  best  features,  its  poetic  depth  of  feeling  and  its  virile 
energy  of  expression,  to  his  German  origin;  certainly  it 
never  found  in  Denmark  the  understanding  it  merited. 

Jerlchau  was  another  artist  whose  Importance  did  not 
correspond  to  his  endowments,  although  for  a  moment  his 
Panther-hunter  seemed  about  to  win  him  a  European  repu- 
tation. His  imagination  was  not  strong,  and  not  very  origi- 
nal, but  he  was  a  master  of  form  such  as  there  has  not  been 
before  or  since  in  Danish  plastic  art.  He  spoke  the  truth 
when  he  proudly  declared  that  In  his  Panther-hunter  he  had 
produced  the  most  accomplished  piece  of  sculpture  of  the 
period,  because  that  great  achievement  of  his  life  did  em- 
body an  energetic  naturalism  which  was  far  In  advance  of  the 
time.  As  a  pupil  of  Freund  and  a  sincere  admirer  of  Thor- 
valdsen,  he,  too,  was  profoundly  influenced  by  antiquity,  but 
he  combined  with  his  enthusiasm  for  the  accepted  generali- 
ties of  classical  art  a  keen  appreciation  of  nature.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  much  of  his  work  there  was  an  element  of 


DANISH  ART  TN  TITK  XIX  CKNTURY     407 


The  Panther-hunter,  by  J.  A.  Jerichau 

sobriety,  but  there  was  also  much  formal  beauty  of  a  very 
superior  quality.  Especially  notable  was  his  representation 
af  animals,  and  of  women.  His  representation  of  women 
was  coldly  chaste;  how  much  self-restraint  such  an  attitude 
toward  womanhood  must  have  cost  him,  considering  his 
emphatically  erotic  temperament.  Is  Indicated  by  a  sketch 


408  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

of  Leda  from  his  hand,  In  which  he  entirely  let  himself  go 
and  showed  warmer  passion  than  anywhere  else  in  his 
usually  rather  untemperamental  work. 

If  Fortune  looked  askance  at  Freund  and  Jerichau,  she 
smiled  on  a  younger  friend  and  colleague  of  Freund's,  H.  V. 
Bissen,  who,  especially  after  the  death  of  Thorvaldsen,  be- 
came the  preeminent  sculptor  of  Denmark,  and  left  a  pro- 
duction almost  as  extensive  as  his  master's.  Merely  between 
1835  and  1 841,  he  supplied  the  Knights'  Hall  at  Christians- 
borg  with  a  frieze  260  feet  long,  with  more  than  200  figures, 
representing  the  triumphal  procession  of  Bacchus  and  Ceres, 
and,  besides,  sketched  eighteen  female  figures  for  statues  of 
saga  heroines  and  Danish  queens  for  a  stairway  at  the  same 
place.  During  a  sojourn  in  Rome  he  had  attracted  Thor- 
valdsen's  attention  and  won  his  confidence  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  master  entrusted  to  him  the  execution  of  the  Guten- 
berg monument  at  Mainz,  and  later  designated  him  as  his 
artistic  executor,  in  which  capacity  he  inherited  several  big 
commissions  and  directed  the  reproduction  in  marble  of 
Thorvaldsen's  works.  Naturally,  collaboration  with  his 
great  teacher  and  close  association  with  his  spirit  left  traces 
in  Bissen's  work;  a  whole  series  of  the  idyllic  sketches  of  his 
youth,  with  or  without  mythological  titles,  reveal  plainly 
enough  the  influence  under  which  they  were  produced.  Yet 
even  figures  such  as  these  show  something  which  stands  to 
Bissen's  own  account,  and  other  works  from  his  hand  prove 
that  in  character  he  was  very  different  from  Thorvaldsen. 
He  chose  from  Greek  mythology  such  figures  as  the  angry 
Achilles,  or  the  Furies  pursuing  Orestes,  or  Filoctetes  on 
Lemnos,  and  in  such  figures  he  showed  a  pathos  which  gave 
promise  of  great  dramatic  possibilities.  The  circumstances 
of  his  private  life,  however,  especially  political  considera- 
tions, soon  led  him  In  a  different  direction.  A  native  of 
Slesvig,  he  felt  himself  even  more  strongly  affected  than 
most  by  the  quarrel  between  Germany  and  Denmark,  and 
Impelled  by  the  national  awakening  and  by  Hoyen's  preach- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  national  art,  Bissen  now  diverted  his 
attention  from  the  remote  Ideas  which  had  heretofore  pos- 


DANISH   ART   IN  TIIR  XIX   CIlNTUkY     40') 


Achilles,  by  H.  V.  BIssen 


sessed  his  imagination  in  order  to  affiliate  himself  with  the 
nationalist  movement.  His  vital  contribution  to  this  was 
the  monument  commemorating  the  victory  at  Fredericia.  In 
the  competition  for  this,  his  rival  was  Jerichau,  who  chose 
the  god  Thor  as  the  symbol  of  the  power  of  the  Danish 
people.  BIssen,  on  the  contrary,  chose  the  actual  hero  of  the 
victory,  the  common  soldier  of  Denmark.  This  Landsoldat, 
planting  his  foot  on  a  captured  mortar,  waving  a  beech- 
bough,  and  uttering  with  all  his  lungs  a  "Hurrah"  for  Den- 
mark, marks  a  turning-point  in  Danish  sculpture  like  that 
marked  in  Danish  painting  by  the  pictures  of  Dalsgaard 
and  Vermehren.  Here  was  the  simple  man  of  the  people 
taken  as  a  plastic  motif  and  presented  to  the  public  for 
approval  as  such;  here  everything  was  conceded  to  living 
reality,  nothing  to  the  abstract  ideal. 


410 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Soldiers'  Monument  at  Fredericia,  by  H.  V. 
Bissen 


Bissen,  In  consequence,  now  exploited  the  breach  with 
tradition  that  he  had  thus  opened.  He  had  previously  been 
such  a  faithful  adherent  of  tradition  that  he  had,  for  in- 


DANISH   AK'l'   IN   'Jill-:  XI\   ClsN'rURV     411 

stance,  represented  ()rstecl  in  classical  drapery.  Henceforth 
In  all  the  nioniinients  he  designed  he  adopted  modern  dress, 
and  this  change  in  itself  introduced  a  new  simplicity  into 
the  spirit  of  his  art.  It  would  take  too  long  to  enumerate 
all  the  full  length  statues  that  emanated  from  his  atelier 
between  1850  and  his  death  in  1868.  Among  the  best  known 
are  the  statue  of  Frederik  VI,  the  equestrian  statue  of  Fred- 
erik  VII,  and  further  memorials  to  H.  C.  Orsted  and  Oehlcn- 
schliiger;  among  the  best — besides  the  statue  of  Frederik 
VI  already  mentioned — are  the  statues  of  the  actress  Fru 
Heiberg  and  of  the  artist's  own  wife.  This  last,  especially, 
has  an  intimacy  of  treatment  which  one  could  not  reasonably 
expect  to  find  in  the  numerous  official  tasks  that  were  as- 
signed to  Bissen.  The  intimate  quality  of  this  statue  is  not, 
however,  entirely  unparalleled  in  his  other  works,  particu- 
larly in  his  almost  interminable  series  of  busts.  He  made 
it  a  point  to  preserve  portraits  of  the  many  prominent  men 
with  whom  he  had  come  in  contact  in  the  course  of  his  long 
career,  and  it  was  especially  in  these  busts,  which  he  carved 
not  to  order  but  con  amore,  that  he  showed  a  far  keener 
eye  for  essentials  of  character  than  his  master  had  possessed, 
although  in  other  respects  he  attached  no  greater  Impor- 
tance to  finish  than  did  the  master.  In  this  feature  his  work, 
especially  in  his  later  years,  was  really  deficient.  The  dem- 
ocratic spirit  of  the  new  era  not  only  diverted  Bissen  from 
the  dramatic  strain  in  which  he  worked  with  so  much 
promise  in  his  earlier  years,  but  it  detracted  from  the  formal 
quality  of  his  work,  because  it  demanded  of  him  wholesale 
and  hasty  production,  which  did  not  leave  him  time  and  quiet 
for  careful  execution.  For  this  reason,  to  many  people 
nowadays  he  appears  at  his  best  In  his  excellent  sketches, 
of  which  the  Ny  Carlsberg  Glyptothek  In  Copenhagen  has 
made  a  fine  collection. 

In  his  atelier,  which  was  the  scene  of  livelier  activity  than 
any  later  Danish  sculptor's,  most  of  the  following  generation 
got  their  training.  Here  In  the  late  thirties  and  early  forties 
were  gathered  such  artists  as  Peters  and  Hertzog,  Stein  and 
Saabye,  all  of  whom  attained  a  great  age  and  carried  down 


412 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Girl  Painting  a  Crock,  by  Vilhelm  Bissen 


to  the  end  of  the  century  the  traditions  of  the  period  of 
Thorvaldsen  and  Bissen.     Of  these,  certainly  the  most  bril- 


DANISH   ARi;   IN    i'lll-;  XIX   CJ^NIURY     413 

liant  was  llertzo^-;  his  iiuicpcndciil  actl\i(y  was  prema- 
turely interrupted  by  a  great  work  of  restoration,  the  sar- 
cophagus of  Queen  Margrethe  in  Roskilde  Cathedral;  but 
a  large  number  of  little  drawings  bear  witness  to  his  gift 
for  plastic  composition.  Peters  had  a  great  deal  of  life 
and  humor.  His  best  works  are  a  few  statuettes,  The 
Dancing  Faun,  Diogenes,  Ahasuerus,  and  Peter  Willemoes; 
his  larger  works  are  not  of  correspondingly  high  merit  He 
also  maintained  a  keen  interest  in  handicraft,  and  contrib- 
uted to  its  promotion  a  series  of  designs  which,  although 
they  do  not  disclose  any  great  original  talent  for  this  kind  of 
work,  show  delicacy  and  artistic  refinement.  Stein  was 
more  successful  than  some  of  the  men  we  have  been  discuss- 
ing in  securing  commissions;  he  had  a  more  robust  talent, 
and  also  a  less  tender  artistic  conscience.  Saabye  was  more 
sympathetic,  for  he  was  more  genuinely  childlike  in  feeling, 
and  at  the  same  time  he  was  a  clever  workman  In  both 
bronze  and  marble.  Other  members  of  this  group  of  pupils 
of  H.  V.  BIssen  were  Evens  and  Vllhelm  BIssen,  the  master's 
son,  who  was  rather  younger  than  the  rest  of  the  group. 
Unlike  the  others,  he  was  somewhat  Influenced  by  the  more 
modern  French  sculptors  such  as  Dubois,  but  he  was  essen- 
tially a  follower  of  his  father's.  He  found  wider  scope  for 
his  activities  than  anyone  since  his  father's  time.  He  did  not 
have  H.  V.  BIssen's  exuberant  creative  power,  but  on  the 
other  hand  his  treatment  of  form  was  finer  and  more  highly 
developed,  although  It  frequently  suffered  from  a  certain 
meagerness  and  lack  of  freshness.  He  did  his  best  work  In 
a  series  of  carvings  of  animals  and  In  a  few  genre  pieces 
like  A  Horseman  and  Girl  Painting  a  Crock.  This  last 
figure,  especially,  brought  him  great  popularity.  It  Is  an 
unusually  pure  and  unusually  pretty  example  of  the  delicate 
and  finished  but  somewhat  timid  and  often  slightly  weari- 
some type  of  sculpture  that  became  prevalent  In  Denmark 
after  the  period  of  Thorvaldsen  and  the  elder  BIssen. 

The  Individuals  who  did  not  conform  to  this  tendency 
were  not  numerous,  and  they  were  not  at  all  hardy.  Hassel- 
rils,  who  showed  marked  talent  for  historic  portraiture  In 


414  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Bust    of    Fru    Hirschsprung,    by    Ludvig 
Brandstrup 

his  Statues  of  Ewald  and  Kierkegaard,  became  only  slightly 
emancipated  from  his  native  school,  despite  his  long  resi- 
dence abroad.  Schultz,  In  his  group  Adam  and  Eve,  showed 
an  Inclination  to  escape  from  the  ranks  and  follow  the  more 
general  European  development,  but  he  soon  weakened  and, 
on  the  whole,  like  his  contemporaries,  Aarsleff,  Jorgen 
Larsen,  and  Axel  Hansen,  he  placed  himself  firmly  on  the 
old  Danish  basis.  A  considerable  sensation  was  caused  In 
artistic  circles  In  the  middle  of  the  eighties  by  Kroyer's  first 
portrait  busts.  In  which  the  treatment — as  one  might  expect 
from  the  great  painter — was  to  a  large  extent  founded  on 
the  pictorial  effect  of  light  and  shade.  This  example,  how- 
ever, found  no  Imitators,  and  generally  speaking,  sculpture 
has  not  participated  In  any  movements  such  as  those  that 
brought  about  the  complete  liberation  of  painting.  At  the 
present  moment  there  Is  nothing  which  may  be  called  a  new 
school  in  Danish  plastic  art,  but  there  is  a  group  of  able 


DANISH  AR'I-   IN    1111':  XIX  CENTURY     415 

sculptors  like  Pedersen-Dan,  Mortciiscii,  Juichscii,  Sciiulrup, 
Bundgaard,  nonncscii,  BaTciit/cn,  and  so  on,  and  outside 
of  this  circle  there  are  se\eral  iiuli\iduals  wh(j  may  chiini 
separate  consideration.  One  of  these  is  Brandstrup,  to 
whom  we  owe  the  fine  monument  to  Zoega  in  Copenhagen; 
he  has  distinguished  himself  by  a  series  of  portrait  busts, 
unsurpassed  in  Danish  art  for  thorough  plastic  study  and 
skillful  handling  of  the  surface  of  the  marble.  There  is  Fru 
Anne  Marie  Carl  Nielsen,  an  acute  observer  of  animal  life, 
especially  of  domestic  animals.  There  is  Jarl,  who  shows 
French  influence,  an  artist  with  a  genuine  plastic  gift,  espe- 
cially for  the  treatment  of  single  figures.  Rudolph  Tegner, 
on  the  contrary,  has  not  the  true  plastic  talent;  his  otherwise 
laudable  efforts  on  a  titanic  scale,  for  example  his  monument 
to  Finsen,  lack  the  solid  foundation  of  study,  and,  besides, 
his  work  is  often  surprisingly  deficient  in  taste.  Nor  Is  Han- 
sen-Jacobsen  a  real  plastic  artist,  but  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
he  Is  a  notable  artistic  personality  because  of  his  pathos. 
Far  from  permitting  himself  to  rest  content  with  the  inof- 
fensive and  Ineffective  figures  with  which  Danish  sculpture 
too  often  has  been  satisfied,  he  has  frequently  attempted  to 
give  plastic  expression  to  such  difficult  subjects  as  the  powers 
of  darkness,  demons,  and  nightmares.  To  this  end,  he  has 
frequently  made  use  of  Intaglio,  which  naturally  deprived 
his  forms  of  all  substance.  Such  a  paradoxical,  plastlc- 
unplastic,  treatment  was  perhaps  appropriate  to  a  paradox 


The  Shadow,  by  Niels  Hansen-Jacobsen 


416  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

^;iuiiA  ,-  like     the     statue     in 

which  he  represented 

f  the  most  incorporeal 

'  .^    I  '  °^      subjects,      The 

'        ■  i  I  S  h  a  d  o  w.      But    in 

other    larger    works 
Hansen  -  Jacobsen's 
^  method    has    inevita- 

bly failed.     The  big 
,-»*v  scale,  which  for  vari- 

ous reasons  he  does 
not  master,  Is  on  the 
whole  unsuited  to  his 
bold  fancy.  His  pa- 
^  '  thos     finds     its     best 

expression  In  a  set  of 
very  small  statuettes 
;  such    as    Lady    Mac- 

beth,   and    The    Da- 
naids,   which  he  has 
^^^        executed   In    earthen- 
B                                            '^^R,  ware — for  he  Is  a 

J  ^       distinguished       ce- 

" — iiiiMiiiiMiiiiMUM ■■ Ill — iMiiiMiiiiiiiiiiii ■ II Ill ■iiiimS       ramlc  artist. 

Memorial     to     the     Artist's     Father     and  What    true     monu- 

Mother,  by  J.  F.  Willumsen  mental   quality   In 

sculpture  really 
means  was  first  demonstrated  among  the  younger  men,  sig- 
nificantly enough,  by  two  of  the  painters  who  were  among  the 
leaders  in  the  quest  for  style  :  by  Niels  Skovgaard,  In  his  mon- 
ument on  Lyrskov  Heath;  by  Willumsen,  In  a  few  colossal 
heads  in  glazed  clay,  and  In  the  memorial  to  his  parents  men- 
tioned above.  Wagner  Is  a  pupil  of  Willumsen's;  by  means 
of  busts,  tombstones,  and  garden  statuary  he  has  gradually 
worked  his  way  up  until  he  has  become  a  very  able  artist  and 
a  thoroughly  excellent  craftsman,  familiar,  so  to  speak,  with 
every  material,  and  understanding  how  to  evoke  from  each 
Its  Inherent  beauty.  His  wife,  Fru  Olga  Wagner,  has 
acquired  from  him  the  same  technical  knowledge;  but  she 


DANISH   ART   IN    1111",   XIX   CI^N'IURV     417 

is,  in  atitlitioii,  :m  iiuicpciulcnt  artist  with  a  capacity,  uncom- 
mon amon^  women,  for  carrying  her  work  through  to  com- 
pletion. Both  of  these  industrious  artists  have  had  a  notice- 
able influence  in  the  improvement  of  the  technique  of  Danish 
sculpture,  which  had  previously  been  extraordinarily  unpro- 
o^rcssive  in  the  matter  of  choice  and  treatment  of  material. 
In  this  respect,  the  most  talented  of  recent  Danish  sculptors, 
Kal  Nielsen,  is  indebted  to  the  Wagners.  He  is,  however, 
individual  and  independent,  and  his  strength  lies  in  the 
almost  Impudent  way  that  he  uses  models  and  motifs  which 
no  one  before  him  had  considered  appropriate  for  plastic 
treatment.  His  art  is  a  creed  that  proclaims  a  delight  in  the 
female  body — even  the  very  heavy-haunched  female  body — 
and  proclaims  It  with  a  boldness  that  often  approaches  flip- 
pancy. But  he  Is  a  born  plastic  artist,  whom  one  is  forced  to 
forgive  almost  anything,  because  he  succeeds  in  combining 
everything  Into  eftectlve  lines  and  masses.  He  understands 
peculiarly  well  the  art  of  preserving  his  block  effect,  avoiding 
anything  piercing  through  the  mass  which  might  make  his 


Group  Picture  from  an  Exhibition  of  Kai  Nielsen's  Works 


418  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

composition  seem  discontinuous  and  restless.  His  style 
therefore  has  a  certain  compactness,  but  also  at  times  a  cer- 
tain clumsiness;  this  conscious  gaucherie,  which  further  ap- 
pears in  the  primitive,  half-Malay  peasant  type  which  he 
usually  employs,  constitutes  a  danger  to  his  uncommonly 
vigorous  talent. 

A  similar  gaucherie  and  a  similar  partiality  for  a  primi- 
tive peasant  type,  appear  in  Bjerg's  bronze.  The  Abyssinian, 
so  far  the  only  important  work  by  this  artist,  who  is  still  very 
young.  Yet  his  style  is  entirely  different:  his  ideal  is  exces- 
sive thinness,  instead  of  fleshiness.  Jean  Gauguin  shows 
a  great  deal  of  humor  in  his  boisterous  little  bronze  statu- 
ettes of  human  figures,  and  of  grace  in  his  representations 
of  animals.  Jens  Lund  is  earnest  and  austere,  and  a  little 
jejeune  in  his  form;  he  is  one  of  the  many  who  prefer  to 
work  in  granite.  The  predilections  of  the  younger  men  are 
divided  between  granite  and  bronze.  In  recent  years  bronze 
has  been  successfully  treated  with  artificial  patina.  A  master 
of  this  art  is  Thylstrup,  who  began  with  charming  mountings 
in  the  ware  of  the  Royal  Copenhagen  porcelain,  and  later 
turned  to  small  figures  in  his  own  elegant,  precieux  jeweler's 
style,  which  is  quite  as  well  adapted  to  bronze  as  to  the  porce- 
lain for  which  he  originally  developed  it.  Closely  related  to 
him  in  various  ways  is  Utzon-Franck,  who  has  shown  consid- 
erable skill  in  adopting  the  early  Renaissance  style,  with  per- 
haps an  inclination  to  follow  it  rather  too  closely.  He  also 
is  a  distinguished  worker  in  bronze,  whose  productions,  at 
least  in  decorative  effect,  are  delicate  and  tasteful. 

Thus  the  latest  Danish  sculptors,  through  their  under- 
standing of  the  possibilities  of  plastic  materials,  seem  to  be 
on  their  way  toward  the  attainment  of  a  truly  plastic  style, 
such  as  Danish  sculpture  might  have  attained  earlier,  if  it 
had  not  too  often  been  doomed  to  remain  in  plaster.  Con- 
sidering the  fact  that  for  so  many  years  it  was  only  to  a  very 
slight  degree  the  object  of  private  initiative;  that  it  was 
produced  mostly  in  fulfilment  of  public  commissions,  or  else 
with  the  most  anxious  regard  for  public  requirements;  that 
It  was  a  passion  to  only  very  few  people  in  the  country,  a 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CENTURY     419 

luxury  to  many,  and  a  matter  of  iiuliffcrcucc  to  the  majority; 
that  it  was  treated  in  a  stepmotherly  fashion,  always  sub- 
ordinated to  painting — it  seems  quite  natural  that,  in  gen- 
eral, its  expression  of  life  should  have  been  decidedly  and 
noticeably  languid.  But  recently  the  conditions  seem  to  have 
improved,  and  therefore  we  may  venture  to  believe  that  it 
will  have  a  brighter  future. 


ARCHITECTURE 

THE  architecture,  like  the  sculpture,  of  Denmark  in  the 
nineteenth  century  was  hampered  by  the  restricted  con- 
ditions of  the  country  and  by  the  lack  of  appreciation 
of  its  significance.  In  the  newer  quarters  of  Copenhagen 
there  are,  Indeed,  a  few  buildings  which  prove  that  the 
country  has  not  at  any  time  been  entirely  devoid  of  good 
architecture,  but  these  buildings  are  too  few  and  too  scat- 
tered to  give  any  general  artistic  character  to  modern  Copen- 
hagen. Such  character  as  the  city  has  it  owes  chiefly  to 
earlier  times,  especially  to  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries;  a  number  of  buildings  of  this  period  are  still 
preserved,  despite  the  catastrophes — the  last  of  these  be- 
ing the  English  bombardment  in  1807 — from  which  the 
capital  has  suffered. 

Like  painting  and  sculpture,  architecture  in  Denmark 
had  behind  it,  strictly  speaking,  no  real  national  tradition. 
The  granite  and  tufa  Romanesque  churches  of  Jutland  were 
built  after  models  in  the  Rhine  district  of  Germany;  the 
somewhat  later  brick  churches  of  Sjaelland  partly  after 
French  models,  partly  after  models  from  the  German  Bal- 
tic region.  Of  the  Gothic  churches  in  the  country,  some  of 
the  most  striking  are  adaptions  of  the  German  Hallenkirche. 
When  the  Renaissance  reached  Denmark,  simultaneously 
with  the  Reformation,  the  relationship  to  foreign  countries 
was  to  a  certain  extent  modified;  after  that  it  was  chiefly 
from  northwestern  Germany  and  especially  from  the  Low 
Countries  that  Denmark  derived  Its  style  known  as  Gothic 
Renaissance  because  of  its  wealth  of  medieval  survivals 
such  as  stair-towers  and  lofty  spires.     This  style  had  little 

420 


DANISH  ART  IN    11  II',   XIX   CIINTURY    421 

iiilliKMicc  Oil  tlic  dcNclojimcnt  of  church  architecture;  on  the 
other  hand  it  was  extensively  used  in  secular  huildings  anti 
notably  in  a  series  of  buildings  erected  under  I'rederik  II 
and  Christian  IV  (Kronborg,  Vallo  Castle,  Frederiksborg, 
Rosenborg,  and  the  Copenhagen  Exchange),  which  al- 
though they  unquestionably  are  modelled  closely  on  build- 
ings in  the  Netherlands,  yet  show  distinct  adaptation  to 
Danish  taste,  and  have  e\'er  since  been  held  in  esteem  as 
something  of  a  national  product.  The  Dutch  influence  was 
succeeded  in  the  eighteenth  century  by  the  baroque  and  the 
rococo,  to  which  we  owe  some  of  the  most  beautiful  work 
in  Copenhagen  and  its  neighborhood.  Hausser's  Chris- 
tiansborg,  of  which  the  interior  was  decorated  under  the 
direction  of  Thura  and  Eigtved,  has  been  burned  down,  and 
so  has  Thura's  Hirschholm  Castle;  but  of  the  work  of  this 
great  builder,  author  of  "The  Danish  Vitruvius,"  there  re- 
main, among  other  things,  the  Hermitage  In  Dyrehaven, 
the  Prince's  Palace  In  Copenhagen,  and  Vor  Frelsers  KIrke 
at  Kristlanshavn.  The  four  palaces  of  Amallenborg  Plads 
— perhaps  In  their  way  the  most  beautiful  In  all  Europe — 
still  support  Elgtved's  claim  to  the  title  of  the  supreme  rep- 


Amalienborg  in  Copenhagen,  designed  by  Nikolai  Eigtved 


422  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

resentatlve  of  the  restrained  baroque  style.  By  the  time 
the  reaction  set  in  against  baroque  and  its  form  of  expression 
in  interior  decoration,  rococo,  Eigtved  was  dead.  Jardin, 
the  French  architect  who  was  summoned  to  Denmarlc  to 
talce  his  place,  was  an  adherent  of  the  new  tendency  toward 
the  antique.  His  task  was  to  complete  the  Frederikskirke, 
for  which  Eigtved  had  furnished  the  design,  intended  to  be 
carried  out  in  Norwegian  marble.  After  ten  years,  how- 
ever, work  was  suspended  on  account  of  lack  of  funds;  it 
has  at  last  been  completed  in  our  own  times  in  a  form  sub- 
stantially different  from  that  originally  planned,  so  that  it  is 
only  from  lesser  undertakings,  such  as  Bernstorff's  Castle, 
that  one  can  form  an  idea  of  Jardin's  work  as  an  artist.  He 
is  of  greater  significance  to  Danish  architecture  in  his 
capacity  as  teacher  of  Harsdorff.  When  Harsdorff  went  in 
1757  to  Paris,  where  a  few  years  before  Soufflot  had  com- 
pleted his  epoch-making  Pantheon,  he  had  already  begun  the 
study  of  the  forms  of  classical  architecture  under  Jardin's 
guidance.  Naturally,  for  him  as  for  the  other  architects  of 
his  time,  this  study  had  to  start  from  Palladio,  but  whatever 
the  course  of  his  development  inParis,he  had  only  to  go  from 
Paris  to  Rome  in  order  to  realize  that  Palladio  was  a  bypath, 
and  that  the  straight  road  was  the  study  of  the  actual  monu- 
ments of  antiquity.  Then  and  subsequently,  by  the  use  of 
Stuart's  book  on  the  antiquities  of  Athens — although  he 
never  saw  Greece,  or  even  acquired  a  real  knowledge  of 
Greek  art — he  attained  a  sufficient  understanding  of  the 
Ionic  style  to  be  able  to  use  the  Ionic  column  long  before  the 
majority  of  his  contemporaries,  without  falling  into  error 
in  the  matter  of  proportions.  It  was  especially  by  his 
introduction  of  the  Ionic  column  into  Denmark  that  he  made 
his  mark  in  our  architectural  history.  His  talents,  unfor- 
tunately, were  never  satisfactorily  turned  to  account.  To 
a  great  extent  they  were  wasted  on  temporary  decorations 
in  preparation  for  royal  festivals  and  so  forth,  on  buildings 
of  perishable  materials,  on  alterations  and  restorations  of  a 
trivial  and  restricted  kind.  Of  comparatively  important 
works  from  his  hand,  there  may  be  mentioned  a  mortuary 


DANISH  AR'I^  IN    11  IK  XTX  CENTURY     423 

chapel  ill  the  Karise  Church  at  Taxc,  the  llcrculcs  I.odjjje  In 
R()senh()rj2;  gardens;  as  his  masterpiece,  the  colonnade  he- 
twcen  the  palaces  of  Anialienborg,  which  although  made 
only  of  wood,  has,  none  the  less,  owing  to  its  perfect  beauty 
of  proportion  and  line,  enjoyed  from  that  day  to  this  a 
merited  reputation  as  the  standard  of  neo-Classic  architec- 
ture in  Denmark.  After  the  fire  in  1795,  which  laid  whole 
quarters    of    Copenhagen    in    ashes,    Harsdorff    found    an 


Colonnade    between    the    Palaces    of    Amalienborg, 
designed  by  C.  F.  Harsdorff 

opportunity  to  show  his  discriminating  taste  and  his  skill  in 
producing  an  imposing  effect  even  on  a  small  scale,  in  erec- 
tion of  a  series  of  simple  and  nobly-proportioned  houses  for 
Copenhagen  citizens.  At  the  same  time  he  was  occupied 
on  plans  for  the  completion  of  the  Frederikskirke,  but 
these  were  interrupted  by  his  death,  and  all  the  great 
undertakings  that  lay  before  him,  the  reconstruction  of 
Christiansborg,  Frue  Kirke,  the  Court-house  in  Copen- 
hagen, devolved  upon  one  of  his  pupils,  Chr.  Fr.  Hansen, 
whose  heavier  but  also  more  magnificent  Roman  style,  for 
instance  in  Christiansborg  and  in  the  Court-house,  has  been 
for  the  first  time  properly  appreciated  in  the  last  ten  years. 
He  had  two  faithful  henchmen,  of  whom  one  was  Mailing, 
the  builder  of  Copenhagen  University  and  Soro  Academy, 
and  the  other  was  Hetsch,  the  son  of  the  well  known  his- 


424  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Court-house  in  Copenhagen,  designed  by  Chr.  Fr.  Hansen 

torical  painter  and  director  of  the  Stuttgart  gallery.  The 
latter,  who  had  studied  as  a  young  man  under  Percier  and 
Lebas  in  Paris,  never  became  an  architect  of  any  great  con- 
sequence (his  most  Important  buildings  are  the  Synagogue 
and  the  Catholic  church  in  Copenhagen)  ;  but  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Empire  style  and  as  a  persevering  advocate 
of  the  intimate  connection  between  art  and  handicraft,  he 
had  a  decisive  influence  on  the  taste  of  the  nation,  assailing 
its  aberrations  in  his  writings,  speech,  and  actions,  and  con- 
stantly pointing  to  antiquity  as  the  only  means  of  salvation. 
In  opposition  to  this  dogmatism  there  came  forward,  from 
about  1840  onward,  a  younger  architect  of  bolder  and  more 
unprejudiced  vision,  livelier  imagination,  greater  original- 
ity, and,  combined  with  all  these,  a  knowledge  of  the  vari- 
ous styles  unusual  for  those  days.  This  was  M.  G.  Bindes- 
boll.  Actively  inspired  from  his  youth  by  Harsdorff, 
influenced  during  his  residence  In  Paris  by  Gau,  whom  he 
knew  through  Semper's  history,  Bindesboll,  too,  had  an 
affection  for  the  classical  style.  His  sense  of  beauty,  how- 
ever, was  open  to   impressions  from  all  sides,   so  that  he 


DANISH  Ain^  IN  nil-:  xix  ckntury    425 

h;ul  the  capacity  to  enjoy  eminent  exaniples  of  jiractically 
e\cry  style.  He  differed  notably  from  his  predecessors  in 
his  cntlca\'or  always  to  introduce  color  and  pictorial  effects. 
Thus  on  his  trip  to  Italy  and  Greece  (about  1835)  he  took 
equal  interest  in  Ponipcian  houses,  Sicilian  churches,  and  in 
the  Turkish  paxilions  and  mosques  of  Athens,  where  he  had 
an  opportunity,  during  the  excavations  on  the  Acropolis,  to 
study  at  first  hand  the  evidences  of  the  use  of  color  in  Greek 
architecture.      With  his  head   full   of  all    these  studies,   he 


The  Thorvaldsen  Museum,  designed  by  M.  G.  Bindesboll 

began  his  project  of  the  museum  for  Thorvaldsen's  work, 
to  which  he  devoted  the  best  powers  of  his  maturity;  in  its 
final  form  it  was  not  only  his  masterpiece,  but  the  greatest 
work  of  genius  that  Danish  architecture  has  brought  forth. 
The  motif  of  the  beautiful  facade  with  its  five  doors  is 
related  to  the  sarcophagus  of  Mycerinus,  but  in  its  lightness 
it  is  more  Attic  than  Egyptian,  and  the  plan  of  the  whole — 
a  court  in  the  centre,  with  Thorvaldsen's  grave,  surrounded 
by  a  two-storied  structure  with  galleries  and  series  of  com- 
municating halls  and  smaller  rooms — is  neither  Egyptian 
nor  Greek,  but  Blndesboll's  own,  and  a  better  plan  could 
hardly  be  devised  for  a  building  which  Is  intended  to  be  at 


426  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  same  time  a  museum  and  a  mausoleum  for  an  individual 
artist.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  museum  better  arranged 
to  do  justice  to  Thorvaldsen's  work.  In  the  great  halls  for 
the  colossal  pieces,  in  the  small  rooms  for  a  single  statue  and 
a  few  bas-reliefs,  in  the  long  galleries  for  Alexander's  Expe- 
dition and  the  pediment  group  from  Frue  Kirke — every- 
where the  space  appears  to  have  been  apportioned  exactly 
to  the  works  which  it  was  intended  to  accommodate.  And 
so  it  actually  was.  With  his  knowledge  of  every  one  of  the 
master's  works,  and  his  affection  for  them,  Bindesboll  cal- 
culated everything  for  their  disposition  and  contributed  to 
the  variety  of  their  effect  by  the  free  use  of  stucco  and  color 
on  ceilings  and  walls.  In  this  building,  which  is  polychrome 
even  to  the  terra  cotta  colored  exterior  walls  with  Sonne's 
splendid  but  unfortunately  almost  vanished  sgraffiato  pic- 
tures of  Thorvaldsen's  return  to  Copenhagen,  which  we  have 
already  mentioned  above,  Bindesboll  realized  his  dream  of 
transporting  the  beauty  of  Southern  color  to  the  dreary 
Northern  clime,  and  from  that  day  to  this  there  has  been  no 
place  in  Denmark  more  pleasant  to  frequent  than  this,  with 
its  warm  and  joyful  beauty. 

Unfortunately  there  was  no  place  in  the  country  for  his 
great  talents  either,  and  only  this  once  could  Bindesboll  fully 
accomplish  his  dream.  Another  project  from  his  hand  show- 
ing genius,  this  time  in  a  kind  of  medieval  style,  was  a  plan 
for  a  zoological  museum;  it  never  got  further  than  paper. 
The  work  he  did  in  his  capacity  of  official  architect  often 
had  the  stamp  of  his  discriminating  taste,  sometimes  also 
of  his  originality,  but  it  suffered  noticeably  from  limited 
scope  and  lack  of  regard  for  artistic  considerations.  "It 
must  be  done  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  it  must  be  done  as 
cheaply  as  possible;  it  must  be  finished  to-morrow,  and  cost 
twopence,"  said  Hetsch  bitterly  of  the  conditions  under 
which  architecture  in  Denmark  had  to  labor;  both  before 
his  time  and  since,  these  handicaps  have  rendered  useless  a 
great  many  noble  impulses  toward  beauty.  Unfortunately 
for  their  country,  but  fortunately  for  themselves,  two  tal- 
ented contemporaries  and  fellow  artists  of  Bindesboll's,  the 


DANISH  ART  IN  THE  XIX  CEN'rURV     427 

brothers  I  lanscn,  escaped  from  the  dreariness  of  their  exist- 
ence at  home.  The  elder,  Chr.  Hansen,  who  settled  In 
Athens  and  built,  among  other  things,  the  University  there, 
later  returned  to  Copenhagen,  where  he  built  the  Municipal 
Hospital,  the  Natural  History  Museum,  and  other  build- 
ings; the  younger,  Theophilus  Hansen,  who  was  summoned 
to  Athens  by  his  brother  and  soon  attracted  the  notice  of 
the  Germans  there  by  his  work  on  the  observatory,  later 
settled  in  Vienna,  where  he  made  himself  a  great  name  by 
his  splendid  buildings — the  Waffenmuseum,  the  Helnrichs- 
hof,  the  Erzherzog  Wllhelm's  palace,  the  Muslkvereln, 
the  Borse,  the  Akademle  der  Kiinste,  the  Reichstag  building, 
etc.     But  he  was  thus  completely  lost  to  Denmark. 

Meanwhile,  from  the  fifties  onward,  with  the  increasing 
knowledge  of  the  country's  older  architecture  and  a  hitherto 
unknown  eagerness  to  preserve  Its  monuments  by  the  help  of 
intelligent  restoration,  there  developed  in  Denmark  an 
impulse  toward  a  more  national  trend  in  contemporary 
architecture — a  tendency  which  found  expression  in  various 
ways,  incidentally  in  the  return  of  brick,  a  native  product, 
to  a  position  of  honor  and  dignity,  displacing  plaster,  which, 
in  defiance  of  the  Danish  climate,  had  been  used  hitherto 
to  cover  the  natural  building  material.  The  leader  of  this 
movement,  Herholdt,  did  not  confine  himself  to  any  one 
style,  but  adapted  himself  to  the  circumstances  of  his  subject, 
and  therefore  did  not  hesitate  to  seek  such  motifs  as  he 
needed  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Denmark.  Thus  the 
National  Bank  In  Copenhagen,  with  Its  massive  rustication, 
Is  late  Italian  Renaissance;  the  Studenterforenlngen,  with 
Its  lighter  feeling.  Is  rather  earlier  Italian  Renaissance;  the 
central  railway  station  (since  torn  down),  most  nearly 
Romanesque;  the  motif  of  the  University  Library  Is  from 
San  Fermo  In  Verona.  Whether  the  style  of  this  last  build- 
ing Is  really  suitable  for  a  library  Is  perhaps  doubtful,  but 
as  to  the  beauty  of  the  building  there  can  be  no  doubt;  both 
the  facade  and  the  great  hall  for  the  books  are  among  the 
most  splendid  of  the  few  real  show-places  of  recent  Copen- 
hagen architecture.     As  much  may  be  said  of  several  build- 


428 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Interior   of  the   University  Library,   in   Copenhagen, 
designed  by  J.  D.  Herholdt 


ings — notably  Abel  Kathrine's  Home,  the  Soldenfeldt 
Foundation,  and  Hirschsprung's  Museum — by  Storck,  a 
pupil  of  Herholdt's,  as  talented  as  his  master;  particu- 
larly in  the  first  of  these  buildings,  an  institution  for 
aged  women,  he  has  shown  unusual  ability  to  produce  the 
tone  that  is  appropriate  to  the  occasion — in  this  case,  a  feel- 
ing of  cloistered  peace.  Whatever  else  one  may  think  of  the 
Danish  architecture  of  this  period,  feeling  was  not  its  strong 
point.  Meldahl's  Frederikskirke  or  his  restoration  of  the 
interior  of  Frederiksborg  Castle;  Dahlerup's  Jesuskirke,  his 
Art  Museum,  or  Ny  Carlsberg  Glyptothek,  or  the  Royal 
Theatre,  which  he  did  in  collaboration  with  Ove  Petersen; 
the  latter's  Dagmar  Theatre;  Albert  Jansen's  exhibition 
building  at  Charlottenborg  or  his  Magasin  du  Nord;  Klein's 
Industrial  Exhibition  building  and  Art  Industry  Museum ; 


D7\NMSII  AKI^  IN  TIIJL  XIX   Cl'lNTURY     429 


Abel  Kathiine's  Home,  designed  by 
H.  B.  Storck 


I'cngcr's  technical 
school,  MathsEUS- 
kirke,  fire  station, 
electric  lighting 
plant,  and  municipal 
schools;  Vilhelm  Pe- 
tersen's Custom 
House  and  Scientific 
Society  building; 
even  if  among  these 
or  other  examples 
of  the  work  of  such 
architects  as  these 
there  are  a  few 
which  are  entirely  praiseworthy  for  the  effort  to  attain 
style  or  for  the  taste  which  they  display  (although  some 
of  them  are  complete  failures  in  these  very  respects),  one 
may  fairly  say,  none  the  less,  that  to  these  practitioners 
architecture  was  merely  a  matter  of  style,  rather  than  a 
real  expression  of  personality.  They  set  out  to  bring  the 
plan  of  their  undertaking  into  conformity  with  their  knowl- 
edge of  some  particular  style,  instead  of  trying  to  get  into 
the  spirit  of  their  problem  and  make  the  building  so  far  as 
possible  an  expression  of  their  interpretation  of  the  function 
that  it  is  intended  to  fulfill. 

At  last  it  dawned  on  Danish  builders  that  a  piece  of  archi- 
tecture does  not  have  character  merely  because  it  is  executed 
in  a  certain  style;  that  a  man  can  carry  over  into  a  plan 
and  a  facade  his  personal  relationship  to  the  problem  in 
hand,  and  that  a  happy  solution  of  the  problem  depends 
mainly  on  his  ability  to  live  in  a  human  relation  to  his  work 
and  infuse  his  own  life  into  its  innermost  spirit.  As  has  al- 
ready been  pointed  out,  Bindesboll  has  supplied  a  shining 
example  and  Storck  several  fine  examples  of  this  tendency; 
it  should  here  be  added  that  Hans  Holm,  likewise.  In  certain 
of  his  works,  such  as  the  building  of  the  office  for  the  man- 
agement of  estates  of  orphans,  and  the  laying  out  of  Vestre 
Cemetery,  which  shows  remarkable  feeling,  has  proved  that 


430  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

this  point  of  view  was  not  entirely  foreign  to  the  best  of  the 
older  generation.  But  the  most  recent  generation  is  the  first 
that  has  done  it  full  justice.  The  work,  to  be  sure,  has 
constantly  been  based  on  a  foundation  of  history,  and  chiefly 
of  national  history,  on  studies  of  the  architecture  either  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  or  of  the  Renaissance,  or  of  the  baroque 
period,  or  the  neo-Classic;  but  on  the  one  hand  the  require- 
ments which  the  building  is  intended  to  meet  are  brought  out 
more  clearly  than  they  used  to  be,  and  in  general  the  building 
is  allowed  more  right  to  exist  for  its  own  sake;  on  the  other 
hand  there  is  more  indulgence  of  the  pleasures  of  subjec- 
tivity than  men  formerly  dared  to  permit  themselves.  For 
this  new  attitude  has  necessarily  done  away  with  much  of 
the  dryness  and  sourness  which  for  so  long  were  among  the 
most  pervasive  characteristics  of  Danish  architecture.  The 
new  buildings  often  impress  one  as  better  humored  than  their 
predecessors.  They  also  have  clearer  consciences,  for  con- 
struction In  Copenhagen  and  its  neighborhood  nowadays  Is 
solider  and  sounder  than  it  used  to  be.  Formerly  one  never 
saw  granite  or  sandstone  used  for  private  houses;  nowadays 
neither  is  rare,  and  one  even  sees  marble  used.  The  more 
generous  attitude  toward  architecture  on  the  part  of  Its 
patrons  Is  certainly  due  not  so  much  to  better  times  as  to  a 
more  general  understanding  of  the  builder's  aims.  Such  an 
understanding  has  become  possible  because  the  builders  are 
no  longer  so  anxious  to  make  their  work  ornamental,  and 
are  much  more  anxious  to  make  It  thoroughly  appropriate. 
A  large  number  of  younger  architects  share  the  honor  of 
Inaugurating  this  Improvement;  on  the  average,  perhaps, 
they  are  not  quite  the  equals  of  their  elders  in  technical 
training,  but  they  are  far  superior  In  their  understanding  of 
the  demands  of  every-day  life  upon  their  art.  In  this  con- 
nection one  may  mention  Schlodte,  Ludvig  Clausen,  Wenck, 
V.  Koch,  Levy,  Clemmensen,  M.  Borch,  Leuning  Borch, 
Axel  Berg,  F.  Koch,  Emil  Jorgensen,  Eugen  Jorgensen, 
Kampmann,  Warming,  Brummer,  Ingwersen,  Tvede,  Rosen, 
Ingemann,  Magdahl-NIelsen,  Thorvald  Jorgensen.  To  the 
last-named  has  fallen  the  heavy  and  arduous  charge  of  con- 


DANISH   ART  IN   THE  XIX  CEN  lURV      431 

structing  the  new  Christiansborg;  unfortunately,  for  many 
special  reasons,  this  building  takes  a  place  outside  of  the 
wholesome  course  ol  tievel()i)inent  of  Danish  architecture  in 
general.  With  this  exception,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
the  artists  in  question,  whether  their  problem  has  been  a 
railway  station  or  a  country  house,  a  barracks  or  a  school,  a 
theatre  or  an  archive  building,  a  library  or  a  hotel,  have 
consciously  endeavored  to  make  the  building  unmistakably 
express  that  particular  phase  of  the  Danish  spirit,  lay,  aca- 
demic, military,  mercantile,  or  whatever  else,  in  which  the 
life  within  the  building  might  be  expected  to  shape  itself. 
A  still  younger  generation  has  lately  taken  up  architecture 
in  Denmark  and  has  made  it  more  Danish  than  ever  by 
establishing  the  old  Danish  models  as  the  only  ones  that  are 
natural  and  proper.  This  generation  has  taken  for  its  ideals 
not  only  the  baroque  buildings  of  the  towns  but  the  farm- 
houses and  parsonages  of  the  country,  habitations  designed 
exclusively  to  suit  the  needs  of  their  owners,  entirely  simple 
and  unpretentious,  yet  for  that  very  reason  often  very  beau- 
tiful. It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  younger  architects  who 
represent  these  Ideals,  Ivar  Bentsen,  Baumann,  Carl  Peter- 
sen, Hygom,  Henning  Hansen,  Fisker,  Rafn,  and  others, 
are  even  more  closely  than  their  predecessors  In  league  with 
the  rural  districts,  nor  that  they  know  how  to  build  so  as 
not  to  detract  from  the  beauty  of  the  country,  but  their 
style  Is  perhaps  less  suitable  for  building  In  the  capital.  To 
a  certain  extent  these  young  architects  are  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Kllnt,  who  In  point  of  age  belongs  to  the  preceding 
generation.  He  has  not  done  much  building;  his  master- 
piece, a  memorial  church  to  Grundtvlg,  has  not  yet  gone 
beyond  the  model  stage ;  but  he  has  had  so  much  the  more 
time  to  think  about  his  art,  and  both  In  speech  and  In  writing 
he  has  supported  the  tendency  which  the  best  of  the  young 
men  are  now  following.  The  first  man  In  modern  Denmark, 
however,  to  point  out  to  architecture  Its  mission  among  men 
was  Martin  Nyrop ;  his  Influence  Is  still  perceptible.  It  was 
he  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century  completed  the 
Copenhagen  Town  Hall.     In  the  style  of  that  splendid  build- 


432 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Copenhagen  Town  Hall,  designed  by  Martin  Nyrop 

ing  there  were  elements  from  many  periods  and  many  re- 
gions. In  the  facade,  with  its  battlements  and  tower,  and 
in  the  semi-circular  open  space  before  it,  one  easily  recog- 
nizes the  influence  of  medieval  Tuscan  city  halls;  in  the 
great  hall  with  the  open  loggia  at  the  front,  the  influence  is 
unmistakable  of  Renaissance  courts  in  Genoa  and  Rome;  for 
the  blind  arcade  of  the  first  story  a  group  of  old  Danish 
manor-houses  supplied  the  model;  many  of  the  light-colored 
decorations  of  the  whitewashed  rooms  were  taken  from  old 
frescoes  in  Danish  churches.  Nyrop  tried  to  work  all  these 
very  diverse  ingredients  into  a  unified  whole,  and  in  many 
particulars  he  succeeded  beyond  all  expectation.  The  exte- 
rior, however,  is  not  as  successful  as  the  interior.  The  great 
hall — with  the  exception  of  the  ceiling  decoration  and  a  few 
details — is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  modern  assembly- 
rooms,  light  in  its  effect,  airy  and  bright,  nobly  conceived  and 
monumental,  yet  free  from  ostentation  or  pretentiousness. 
What  gave  this  building  its  peculiar  attraction,  however, 
was  the  amiable  spirit  that  prevailed  in  all  the  every-day 
rooms  and  ofiices  and  corridors  and  stairways  and  so  on. 


DANISH  ART  IN  TlII^:  XIX  CENTURY     433 


The   Great  Hall   in   the   Copenhagen  Town   Hall,  designed 
by  Martin  Nyrop 

In  all  such  places  a  loving  hand  had  so  caressed  the  objects 
of  practical  utility,  giving  them  such  artistic  form,  that  even 
the  heaviest  mind  must  feel  itself  lightened  by  moving  In 
such  surroundings,  where  beauty  is  so  liberal  with  Its  smile. 
Granted  that  the  beauty  was  not  always  as  exquisite  as  one 
might  have  wished;  that  Nyrop  was  not  always  fastidious 
enough  in  his  choice  of  collaborators,  that  by  no  means 
everything  was  first  hand  or  first  rate,  that  the  taste  here 
and  there,  especially  on  the  exterior,  was  a  little  childish  and 
showed  a  delight  In  details  and  trifles  rather  than  a  felicitous 
sense  of  unified  monumental  effect — perhaps  It  was  just  be- 
cause of  all  this,  perhaps  it  was  just  because  no  very  great 
refinement  of  taste  was  needed  for  the  appreciation  of  Its 
artistic  qualities,  that  this  genuinely  democratic  building 
won  all  hearts  and  was  greeted  with  an  enthusiasm  such  as 
has  never  been  shown  for  any  other  work  of  Danish  archi- 
tecture. 

With  Its  mighty  tower,  bold  yet  not  boastful;  with  its 
portal,  rich  yet  not  ornate;  with  Its  whole  character  perme- 
ated with  Danish  distaste  for  the  venturesome,  the  exag- 


434  MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 

gerated,  the  presumptuous,  and  with  Danish  taste  for  the 
intelHgible,  the  natural,  and  the  simple,  this  building  stands 
as  a  symbol  for  future  generations,  as  a  testimonial  to  the 
endeavor  not  only  of  Danish  architecture  but  of  all  Danish 
art  throughout  the  nineteenth  century  and  now  in  the  twen- 
tieth to  be  sincere,  to  offer  nothing  except  what  it  really  had. 
to  seem  nothing  except  what  it  really  was. 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 

By 
JENS  THUS 

Director  of  The  National  Gallery  at  Christiania 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 

By  Jens  Tims 

I 

THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  PIONEERS 
DAHL  AND  FEARNLEY 


THE  new  Norway  that  achieved  independence  in  1814 
saw  the  foundation  of  its  pictorial  art  contemporane- 
ously with  the  foundation  of  its  judicial  and  political 
freedom.  Norwegian  painting  thus  belongs  among  the  most 
recent  in  Europe,  in  so  far  as  its  traditions  can  hardly  with 
good  reason  be  traced  farther  back  than  to  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Norway,  to  be  sure,  had  art  before  this  time.  In  our 
saga  period,  in  the  early  Middle  Ages  of  European  civiliza- 
tion, Norway  appears  even  to  have  had  a  prominent  place 
in  the  domain  of  the  arts.  The  Oseberg  antiquities  bear  bril- 
liant witness  to  an  individual  and  independent  artistic  cul- 
ture; and  the  cathedrals  of  Trondhjem  and  of  Stavanger 
and  Haakonshallen  remain  as  precious  monuments  from  the 
era  of  our  national  eminence  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries.  Recent  research  has  made  it  clear,  furthermore, 
that  we  had  at  this  time  also  the  arts  of  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing In  Norwegian  forms,  although  they  bore  a  close  rela- 
tionship to  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  in  other  occidental 
lands.  Not  only  were  French  and  English  artists,  summoned 
from  abroad,  at  work  among  us;  it  is  manifest,  as  well,  that 
there  was  emerging  from  the  soil  of  Norway  itself  an  art 

437 


438  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

which  actually  took  on  the  character  of  schools  In  the  various 
parts  of  the  country.  The  names  of  the  artists  have  been 
forever  blotted  out  by  time;  but  their  works  have  to  some 
extent  been  preserved  in  the  form  of  antependia,  crucifixes, 
and  painted  decorations  from  our  oldest  churches. 

This  art  life,  however,  declined  with  the  decline  of  our 
national  independence,  and  received  Its  quietus  upon  the 
coming  of  the  Reformation.  Even  after  that  time,  It  is  true, 
artists  of  Norwegian  nationality  are  to  be  found,  and  also 
pictures  of  an  ancient  date  which  may  be  said  probably  or 
certainly  to  have  been  done  In  Norway.  Yet  these  sporadic, 
for  the  most  part  ecclesiastical,  pictures  or  portraits  from 
the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  or  eighteenth  century  possess  so 
little  originality  that  it  Is  difficult  on  the  basis  of  these  relics 
to  form  the  vaguest  conception  of  an  independent  Norwe- 
gian school  of  painting  or  of  a  consecutive  pictorial  tradition 
In  our  country. 

Nevertheless,  such  absence  of  a  national  art  in  the  higher 
sense  is  by  no  means  to  be  understood  as  an  evidence  of  lack 
of  artistic  Impulses  among  the  people.  On  the  contrary. 
The  artistic  tendencies  which  among  other  nations  since  the 
days  of  the  Renaissance  have  been  directed  steadily  toward 
greater  individual  expression  took  a  peculiarly  general  form 
under  the  special  cultural  conditions  surrounding  the  rural 
Norwegian  people  In  the  time  of  the  Danish  sovereignty. 
These  tendencies  gave  rise  to  a  decorative  art,  which  ac- 
quired a  sharply  distinctive  character  in  the  various  provin- 
cial communities  and,  hedged  about  by  vigorous  tradition, 
gradually  spread  farther  abroad. 

There  are,  however,  from  the  period  preceding  the  nine- 
teenth century,  a  small  number  of  artists  of  Norwegian  birth 
whose  names  and  dates  are  known,  as  well  as  their  works. 
Among  these  Magnus  Berg,  a  man  of  peasant  origin  who 
died  in  1739,  stands  preeminent  for  talents  as  a  painter  and 
carver  that  made  him  illustrious  to  fame  in  his  own  day. 
He  was  a  highly  developed  technician,  numbered  as  a  worker 
in  ivory  among  the  best  in  the  baroque  age.  All  of  his  activi- 
ties, however,  fall  outside  of  his  native  land,  since  he  lived 


MODKRN   NORWl'XilAN   AF^r  439 

lOr  (lie  most  p:irt  in  Cojicnha^cn,  in  the  eniploy  of  the  king, 
and  died  there. 

Ex'cn  during  the  hist  years  of  the  union  with  Denmark, 
intellectual  lile  in  Norway  began  to  assume  independent 
forms  aiul  to  become  conscious  of  its  individuality.  After 
the  bonds  of  adherence  were  severed,  our  nation  spontane- 
ously asserted  its  freedom  also  in  the  sphere  of  art,  although 
the  Acaciemy  in  Copenhagen  for  a  long  time  continued  to  be 
the  nearest  and  most  ob\ious  school  for  young  Norwegian 
painters. 

As  early  as  a  decade  or  two  after  the  rebirth  of  our 
political  independence  in  1814  one  could  name  a  small  group 
of  painters  who  were  commonly  regarded  as  forming  an 
actually  Norwegian  school  of  painting,  though  all  of  them 
had  sought  their  training  abroad  and  still  were  compelled 
to  seek  their  livelihood  there.  The  fact  was  that  at  home  in 
Norway  the  collective  energies  were  so  completely  occupied 
in  the  arduous  struggle  to  establish  the  country  economically 
and  to  secure  Its  self-government  In  the  new  union  with 
Sweden,  that  a  considerable  number  of  years  went  by  before 
the  Norwegian  artists  could  take  root  In  their  native  soil. 

Yet  though  the  entire  older  school  of  Norwegian  painters 
were  trained  at  foreign  academies,  such  as  those  of  Copen- 
hagen, Dresden,  Diisseldorf,  and  Munich,  and  In  a  great 
part  lived  abroad,  none  the  less  they  painted  the  scenes  of 
home.  By  means  of  summer  visits  and  frequent  travels  In 
the  land  of  their  birth  they  maintained  contact  with  the 
people  and  the  nature  that  their  art  portrayed. 

In  a  survey  of  the  history  of  Norwegian  art  no  one  is 
more  deserving  of  mention  than  Johan  Christian  Clausson 
Dahl,  who  has  been  called  the  father  of  our  national  art  of 
painting.  Not  only  with  regard  to  time  but  with  regard  to 
artistic  rank  he  stands  among  the  foremost,  as  the  renewer 
and  regenerator  of  the  art  conceptions  of  his  age  and  as  the 
most  gifted  Interpreter  of  Norwegian  nature  we  have  had. 

Johan  Christian  Dahl,  the  son  of  a  poor  fisherman  and 
ferryman  of  Bergen,  was  born  In  1788.  After  eight  years 
of  experience  as  a  journeyman  painter  In  his  native  city,  he 


440  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

became,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  a  pupil  at  the  Academy 
of  Art  in  Copenhagen.  During  his  apprenticeship  in  Copen- 
hagen, however,  it  was  not  the  professors  at  the  Academy 
but  old  Dutch  masters  In  Danish  collections  who  developed 
his  feeling  for  nature  and  opened  his  eyes  to  the  possibili- 
ties of  paint.  How  much  he  owed  to  these  masters  is  most 
clearly  to  be  seen  in  certain  youthful  pictures  which,  together 
with  a  selection  of  his  splendid  studies  from  nature,  are 
grouped  in  our  National  Gallery.  Even  in  such  a  work  from 
Dahl's  later  period  as  the  magnificent  painting,  dated  1838, 
of  Hougsfossen  with  its  lowering  heavens  and  its  glitter- 
ing birch  bending  over  the  cascade,  there  are  reminders  of 
that  great  old  Dutch  nature  poet  and  romanticist,  Jacob 
van  Ruisdael;  with  this  reservation,  however,  that  Dahl's 


Hougsfossen,  by  Johan  Christian  Dahl.     In  the  National  Gallery 

realism  is  by  so  much  the  stronger  that  he  does  not  hesitate 
to  drag  salmon  fisheries  and  the  sheds  and  the  piled  timbers 
of  a  saw-mill  into  his  romanticism. 

Moreover,  Dahl's  preparatory  years  fell  within  a  time 
during  which  a  new  and  a  fuller  conception  of  nature  was 
coming  to  the  fore  in  literature  and  art;  and  he  became 
himself  one  of  those  who,  in  the  struggle  against  the  older. 


M0I)I;RN  NORWEGIAN  ART  441 


Copenhagen    by    Moonlight,    by    Johan    Christian    Dahl.     Privately 
owned 

conventionally  classical  view  of  art,  contributed  to  the 
supremacy  of  a  deeper  and  more  personal  understanding 
of  nature.  What  Henrik  Wergeland  was  to  be  for  Nor- 
wegian poetry  and  national  feeling,  Dahl  was  to  be  for 
Norwegian  painting  and  the  appreciation  of  nature.  Be- 
sides, just  as  Wergeland  in  his  production  worked  his  way 
out  from  overwrought  romanticism  into  clearness  and  real- 
ism, so  Dahl  with  the  passing  years  became  more  and  more 
a  confessed  naturalist,  and  almost  all  of  his  later  pictures 
are  deeply  rooted  in  immediate  studies  from  nature  which, 
during  his  entire  life,  he  painted  in  great  numbers.  One 
of  these  studies  is  reproduced  here,  Copenhagen  by  Moon- 
light, painted  in  1846. 

On  his  return  in  1821  from  a  sojourn  in  Italy  Dahl  was 
offered  a  professorship  at  the  Dresden  Academy  of  Art; 
and  although  he  vacillated  between  this  proposition  and  simi- 
lar intimations  from  Copenhagen,  he  finally  decided  to 
choose  Dresden.  At  home  in  Norway,  under  the  prevail- 
ing conditions,  there  was,  in  fact,  not  the  least  probability 
of  a  livelihood  for  a  painter  who  was  not  willing  to  face 
actual   poverty;    and   Dahl   was   already   well   on   his   way 


442 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


toward  European  fame.  Although  as  an  academy  profes- 
sor in  Dresden  he  was  thus  doomed  to  Hve  far  from  the 
land  he  loved,  he  never  ceased  to  interpret  and  to  glorify 
through  his  art  the  nature  of  Norway. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  Dahl  was  the  pictorial 
discoverer  of  Norwegian  landscape.  Even  in  his  youth  he 
writes  of  Norway  as  a  virgin  soil  that  is  capable  of  yielding 
a  rich  harvest.  So  on  his  summer  travels  he  wandered  over 
valley  and  mountainside,  followed  the  long  coast  line,  and 
penetrated  the  recesses  of  the  fjords,  to  return  afterward 
to  his  studio  in  Dresden  with  a  rich  garner  of  wonderfully 
fresh  and  colorful  nature  studies. 

In  Dahl's  depiction  of  Norway  the  western  part  of  the 
country,  the  so-called  Westland,  naturally  takes  the  most 
conspicuous  place;  but  his  lively  mind  and  liberal  spirit 
made  him  kindle  easily  into  enthusiasm  for  the  nature  of 
Norway  in  its  entirety.  Still  he  reached  perhaps  his  high- 
est attainment  in  the  portrayal  of  mountain  height  and  heath. 
On  his  last  tour  through  Norway  he  passed  over  Filefjeld 


Stugunoset,  by  Johan  Christian  Dahl.     In  the  National  Galler 


MOI)p:kN    NOkVVl'XilAN    ARJ' 


443 


Stalheim,  by  Johan  Christian  Dahl.     In  the  National  Gallery 

to  Bergen;  a  fruit  of  his  studies  on  this  trip  is  the  picture 
called  Stugunoset,  painted  in  185  i.  Never,  before  or  since, 
has  Norwegian  mountain  scenery  been  presented  with  such 
power.  One  forgets  the  smallness  of  the  canvas  in  contem- 
plating the  boldness  of  the  outline.  This  mighty  mountain 
ridge,  formed  when  the  world  was  young,  that  pushes  its 
long  moss-decked  expanse,  on  which  herds  of  reindeer  are 
grazing,  down  toward  the  abyss — that  is  mountain  scenery; 
it  is  great  and  dramatically  composed  landscape  art. 

If  it  comes  to  a  question  as  to  what  Dahl  was  capable  of 
at  the  height  of  his  artistic  powers,  Norwegians  who  believe 
in  his  greatness  can  point  to  such  works  as  the  magnificent 
nature  symphony  on  a  theme  from  Stalheim,  now  in  the 
National  Gallery,  or  Birch-tree  in  Storm,  privately  owned 
in  Bergen.  In  the  last-named  picture,  especially,  his  lyri- 
cism and  love  of  country  together  have  created  a  work  of 
art  that  is  a  virtual  symbol  of  Norway. 

At  the  edge  of  the  sheer  mountain  ridge,  above  sunken 
valley  and  driving  fog,  there  is  a  crevice  so  shielded  from 


444 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Birch-tree  in  Storm,  by  Johan  Christian  Dahl.     Privately  owned  in 
Bergen 

northern  storms  that  the  moss  has  been  enabled  to  clothe 
the  rocks  and  to  gather  mold.  In  this  sparse  earth,  the 
salvage  of  centuries,  a  birch  has  taken  root  and  is  clinging 
fast.  Year  after  year  it  has  grown  more  erect  against  the 
winds  of  the  heath  and  the  breath  of  glaciers;  now  it  stands 
in  its  full  stature  and  maturity  with  glittering  leafage  on 
every  bough.  Blonde  and  full-bosomed,  fragrant  and  trans- 
lucent, it  bends  over  the  deep  valley;  and  the  sap  is  flowing 


M0I)1:RN   NORWEGIAN  AR'l  445 

through  t()uj>h  wood  beneath  tliat  silken  hark.  One  chiy 
the  sun  pours  a  wealth  of  hght  and  warmth  over  its  fohage; 
the  next  day  the  western  bhist  lays  a  strangling  hold  upon 
it  and  forces  it  toward  the  earth  so  that  branches  writhe 
and  leaves  are  twisted  about.  Dahl  has  seen  the  birch  while 
the  two  forces  were  in  collision.  The  storm  wrenches  the 
crown  and  bends  the  trunk  into  a  bow ;  but  the  sun  pierces 
through  the  rift  in  the  clouds  and  throws  glancing  rays  over 
the  struggling  branches.  It  is  only  a  birch,  yet  it  is  a  poem 
whose  theme  is  meagre  soil  and  ready  growth. 

Paintings  by  Dahl  are  to  be  found,  besides  In  the  National 
Gallery  and  in  the  Picture  Gallery  In  Bergen,  also  In  the 
Danish  Art  Museum  and  in  various  German  collections, 
such  as  the  galleries  In  Dresden,  Berlin,  Cassel,  Hamburg, 
and  Prague. 

While  Dahl  Is  under  discussion,  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  he  demonstrated  his  love  for  Norway  by  other  means 
as  well  as  by  his  art.  He  exerted  himself  In  persistent  and 
enthusiastic  efforts  to  awaken  artistic  life  among  our  people. 
It  was  Dahl  who  took  the  Initiative  toward  the  founding 
of  the  National  Gallery,  and  it  was  he  who  was  Instrumental 
In  establishing  art  societies  In  the  larger  cities  throughout 
Norway.  His  name  is  connected  with  the  cathedral  at 
Trondhjem  and  with  the  restoration  of  Haakonshallen,  and 
in  1837  he  published  In  German  a  volume  on  Norway's 
medieval  timber  churches.  Dahl  died  in  Dresden,  October 
14,  1857. 

Dahl's  most  talented  pupil  was  Thomas  Fearnley;  he  was 
born  at  Fredrlkshald  In  1802,  and  died  at  Munich  in  1841. 
Fearnley  received  his  first  instruction  in  painting  In  Copen- 
hagen, and  more  especially  in  Stockholm  under  Fahlcrantz; 
it  was  not,  however,  until  he  met  Dahl  on  a  sketching  trip 
through  Norway  that  he  found  the  right  path.  He  was 
at  once  strongly  Impressed  with  the  poetic  naturalism  of 
the  master,  and  during  a  considerable  stay  In  Dresden  the 
two  painters,  working  together,  developed  a  close  and 
devoted  friendship  for  each  other. 

Fearnley,  for  his  part,  was  throughout  life  driven  on  by 


446 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Terrace  at  Sorrento,  by  Thomas   Fearnley.     Privately  owned  in 
Christiania 


love  of  travel,  and  his  restless  blood,  which  vt^as  not  wholly 
Norwegian,  yearned  eagerly  for  new  sensations.  First  to 
Munich,  later  to  Italy,  thereafter  to  Switzerland,  Paris, 
England,  Norway,  and  back  to  Munich — such  were  his 
wanderings;  but  just  as  he  had  settled  down,  filled  with 
impressions  of  art  and  nature,  and  was  about  to  do  his  best 
work,  death  carried  him  off  before  his  fortieth  year. 

In  Fearnley's  case  the  influence  of  the  clear  outlines  of 
Italian  landscape  and,  next  to  that,  the  vision  of  the  gigantic 
Alpine  world  of  contours  became  decisive.  He  was  strongly 
tempted  to  remain  in  Italy;  here  he  painted  the  most  splen- 
did studies,  and  here  in  the  land  of  sunlight  and  wine  his 
joyous  and  sensuous  nature  was  at  ease.  Fearnley's  dream 
as  an  artist  was  this:  without  being  false  to  the  veracious 
study  of  nature  in  which  Dahl  had  schooled  him,  to  develop 
a  more  elevated  ideal  art  than  that  which  might  be  attained 


modi:rn  norwfxjtan  art 


447 


solely  by  the  "nature"  method  of  Dahl,  an  art  in  which 
nionunicntal  beauty  of  line  and  romantic  sensibility  were  to 
be  johied  in  a  richness  of  harmony  else  unknown  to  contem- 
porary art. 

In  pure  painting  Fearnley  did  not  attain  so  high  a  level 
as  Dahl;  but  as  a  creative  and  poetic  artist  he  was  Dahl's 
equal.  Henrik  Wergeland  says  in  his  characterization  of 
the  two  men  that  Dahl's  paintings  indicate  a  genius  of 
sharper  profile,  of  greater  independence.  This  is  true  in 
so  far  as  Fearnley  never  reaches  Dahl's  exuberant  liveli- 
ness or  the  rich  tone  of  his  execution.  Yet  Fearnley's  aim 
is  often  the  higher  as  regards  firm  and  conscious  composi- 
tion; his  draughtsmanship  is  sure  and  confident,  and  he  ex- 
presses what  he  wills  with  imposing  calm. 

Fearnley's  masterpiece  is  Labrofossen,  now  in  the  Na- 
tional Gallery,  painted  in  England  in  1837  after  studies 
from  his  last  journey  in  Norway.  A  copious  stream  is  flow- 
ing directly  toward  the  spectator  in  a  broad,  foaming  cas- 
cade. A  dead  pine  tree  stretches  its  withered  branches  up 
toward  a  lowering,  foreboding  sky.     On  both  sides  are  dark 


Labrofossen,  by  Thomas  Fearnley.     In  the  National  Gallery 


448  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

masses  of  pine  forest  rising  Into  ridges  in  the  background. 
Wet  clouds  sweep  over  them.  In  the  foreground  a  log  is 
caught  in  an  eddy  of  the  river.  Upon  it  an  eagle  has  settled, 
the  only  living  thing  In  a  lonely  waste. 

Among  Norwegian  landscapes  there  is  hardly  another 
that  Is  composed  more  decidedly  in  the  grand  manner  than 
Fearnley's  Labrofossen,  and  no  other  that  has  its  resound- 
ing power  in  the  shifting  harmonies  of  lights  and  shadows. 
The  coloring,  to  be  sure.  Is  cold  and  clear,  with  something 
of  the  monotony  of  enamels.  Still  this  cold  and  reserved 
color  scheme  gives  an  impression  of  distance  and  sublimity. 
Like  an  ossianic  mood  which  has  become  clarified  and  fixed 
in  permanent  form,  this  picture  remains  as  an  enduring 
witness  that  the  great  romantic  movement  swept  with  the 
beating  of  wings  over  the  work  of  one  Norwegian  artist 
at  least. 

Among  Dahl's  other  pupils  brief  mention  will  be  made 
here  only  of  Baade  and  Frich.  Knud  Baade,  who  was  born 
at  Stavanger  In  1808,  was  a  student  in  the  Academy  of  Art 
at  Copenhagen  before  coming  to  Dahl  in  Dresden.  Baade 
took  up  a  special  feature  of  Dahl's  many-sided  landscape 
art,  namely  moonlight  painting,  and  made  it  a  specialty. 
In  1845  Knud  Baade  removed  to  Munich,  where  he  lived 
and  worked  as  a  highly  esteemed  artist  till  his  death  In 

1879. 

I.  C.  Frich,  who  was  born  at  Bergen  In  18 10,  also  came 
under  Dahl's  direction  after  having  been  a  pupil  at  the 
Academy  in  Copenhagen.  Dahl  received  his  fellow  towns- 
man warmly,  and  Frich  seemed  at  first  Inclined  to  follow 
Dahl's  lead.  The  times,  however,  were  full  of  temptations 
to  forsake  the  nature  method  professed  by  Dahl,  and  Frich 
too  departed  for  Munich,  which  was  becoming  the  new  seat 
of  more  impressive  and  romantic  color  doctrines.  Frich, 
It  should  be  noted,  was  the  first  among  the  Norwegian 
painters  trained  In  Germany  who  made  a  serious  attempt  to 
live  at  home.  Till  the  very  time  of  his  death  in  1858  he 
resided  in  Christlania,  where  he  was  a  teacher  in  the  School 
of  Design  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 


M0D1:RN  NORVVi'XilAN  y\Kr  449 


The  Bjornsteg  Beacon,  by  Johan  Flintoe.     In  the  National  Gallery 

National  Gallery  and  of  Kunstforeningen.  His  eight  large 
landscapes  from  scenically  beautiful  places  in  Norway, 
painted  In  1850  in  the  dining-room  at  Oscarshal,  Oscar  I's 
newly  erected  country  palace  on  Ladegaardsoen,  are  his 
principal  works. 

Another  artist  who  actually  made  his  residence  in  Chris- 
tiania  during  these  formative  years  in  our  art  life  was 
Johan  Flintoe,  He  was  born  in  Danish  Holstein  and  died 
at  Copenhagen  in  1870;  yet  by  his  activities  and  by  the 
themes  of  his  art  he  belongs  to  Norway.  In  earlier  days 
Flintoe  was  best  known  as  a  teacher  of  drawing  in  the  newly 
established  Royal  School  of  Design  and  as  a  painter  of  views 
and  panoramas  in  the  little  town  that  was  Christiania  of 
the  thirties  and  forties.  His  importance  as  an  artist,  how- 
ever, was  not  estimated  at  its  proper  value  so  long  as  his 
Norwegian  landscapes,  painted  in  water-color  and  in 
gouache,  remained  hidden  in  Danish  private  collections. 
Now  that  they  have  become  known  and  for  the  most  part 
have  been  acquired  for  the  National  Gallery  or  other  Nor- 


450  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

weglan  collections,  they  disclose  a  new  side  of  Flintoe's 
talent.  They  reveal  him  as  an  actual  discoverer  of  an  essen- 
tial feature  in  the  nature  of  Norway.  Norwegian  mountain 
scenery,  which  at  that  time  was  virgin  soil  for  art,  he  appre- 
hended, in  pictures  such  as  those  of  Myrhorn,  The  Bjornsteg 
Beacon,  and  Jostedalsbrasen,  with  a  cold  and  keen  vision 
like  that  of  the  older  Dane  Eckersberg,  and  reproduced  it 
with  unsophisticated  and  precise  faithfulness  to  detail.  Still 
his  depiction  of  these  mountain  heights  has  undeniable  great- 
ness and  expressiveness  of  modelling.  As  a  painter,  though 
he  had  an  unusually  fine  sense  of  values,  Flintoe  was  a  puri- 
tanical colorlst  who  with  rationalistic  persistence  kept  apart 
from  all  romantic  depth  and  mysticism,  and  continuously 
moved  within  a  gamut  of  cold,  meagre,  daylight  colors. 
Certain  phases  of  his  art  touch  phases  of  Dahl's ;  but,  unques- 
tionably, Flintoe's  talent  is  the  drier  and  the  more  attenu- 
ated, and  its  greatest  strength  lies  in  dispassionate  sincerity. 
Norwegian  naturalism  may  properly  look  back  to  Flintoe 
as  one  of  Its  earliest  progenitors. 

Another  side  of  Flintoe's  endowment  is  revealed  by  the 
satirical  drawings  in  the  National  Gallery,  in  which  he  pic- 
tures humorously  and  with  rare  narrative  power  the  diffi- 
culties and  dangers  of  travel  under  the  primitive  conditions 
that  surrounded  the  tourist  in  Norway  at  that  time.  Of 
Flintoe  as  a  teacher,  Hans  Gude,  who  became  a  pupil  of  his 
at  the  age  of  twelve,  says  that  this  master  was  an  artist  by 
nature,  and  that  he  was  principally  Indebted  to  him  for  the 
early  acquisition  of  a  certain  sense  of  beauty  of  form. 

Figure  painters  are  neither  numerous  nor  very  prominent 
In  this  first  period  of  the  history  of  Norwegian  art.  The 
most  significant  among  them  Is  Jacob  Munch.  Munch  was 
born  at  Christlanssand  in  1776,  received  the  education  of  a 
military  officer,  and  became  a  captain  In  the  Norwegian 
army  in  18 12.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  however,  he 
entered  as  a  pupil  in  the  Academy  of  Art  at  Copenhagen; 
later  he  travelled  for  a  time,  and  saw  David's  art  In  Paris 
and  Thorvaldsen's  in  Rome.  Subsequently  Munch  made 
his  home  in   Christiania,   and  many  are   the  portraits  he 


MODERN   NOkWJXiiAN   ARI' 


451 


painted  of  his  countrymen  and  countrywomen.  Best  known 
in  his  hirge  picture  representing;  the  Coronation  of  Carl 
Johan  in  the  cathedral  at  Trondhjem  in  1818;  this  work, 
now  in  the  palace  at  Christiania,  is  weak  as  a  whole,  but  has 
occasional  good  portrait  heads.  On  his  youthful  travels 
he  painted  Oehlenschliiger  in  Paris  in  1807  and  Thorvaldsen 
in  Rome  in  1810. 
During  the  time  of 
his  activities  at 
home  he  was  the 
portrait  painter  of 
the  Old  Eidsvold 
men,  the  elderly 
generals  and 
landed  proprietors, 
somewhat  dry  and 
wooden  in  form, 
yet,  as  a  pupil  of 
David,  elegant  and 
genteel;  moreover, 
his  portraits  often 
disclose  a  powerful 
feeling  for  charac- 
ter. 

Munch  was  one 
of  the  founders  of 
the    Royal    School 

of  Art  and  Design  In  Christiania,  and  was  active  as  a  teacher 
in  the  Institution  till  his  death  In  1839.  To  the  family  of 
which  he  was  a  member  belong  also  the  painters  Edvard 
Munch  and  Fritz  Thaulow.  Munch's  heir  as  the  portrait 
painter  of  Christiania  society  was  Johan  Gorbitz.  This 
Bergen  man,  Munch's  junior  by  six  years,  had  received  a 
solid  training,  first  at  the  Academy  in  Copenhagen  and  later 
In  Paris,  where  he  lived  for  a  long  time  as  a  painter  of  minia- 
tures and  portraits.  Gorbltz's  portraits  are  Impeccable  and 
skilful,  but  precise  and  dry.  The  best  known  work  from  his 
hand  Is  the  girlishly  attractive  miniature  of  Niels  Henrik 


Portrait   of   the   Artist,   by   Jacob   Munch. 
Privately  owned 


452 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Abel  as  a  youth.  For  that  matter,  Gorbitz  painted  nearly 
all  the  prominent  men  and  fine  ladies  who  sat  for  their  por- 
traits in  Norway  during  the  forties.  He  also  produced  small 
landscapes  on  Norwegian  themes,  and  was  not  untouched  by 
the  influence  of  Dahl. 

Another    artist   who    alternately    painted    portraits    and 

landscapes  was 
Jacob  Calmeyer. 
He  was  born  at 
Fredrikshald  in 
1802;  like  Fearn- 
ley  he  went  to 
Stockholm  to  study 
and  later  to  Dahl 
in  Dresden;  he 
lived  for  a  time 
in  Copenhagen  but 
afterward  in  Chris- 
tiania  till  his  death 
in  1884.  Calmeyer 
never  acquired  par- 
ticular note  as  an 
artist.  Yet  he 
painted  a  portrait 
or  two  of  the  poet 
Welhaven  as  a 
youth  which  indicate  a  sense  of  beauty  and  a  bright  and  lov- 
able apprehension  of  his  subject. 

A  painter  whose  artistic  work  received  little  recognition 
until  it  was  collected  at  the  Jubilee  Exposition  in  19 14  is 
Mathias  Stoltenberg.  Stoltenberg,  who  was  born  in  Tons- 
berg  in  1799,  lived  a  long  life,  the  laborious  and  well  nigh 
thankless  life  of  the  peripatetic  portrait-painter,  wandering 
about  the  country,  especially  In  the  so-called  Uplands,  in  the 
region  of  Trondhjem,  In  Romsdalen,  and  In  Nordland  until 
he  died  in  1871  at  Vang  In  Hedemarken,  where  he  found  a 
tardy  home,  If  such  It  was.  While  Captain  Munch  was  the 
artist  of  the  Empire  period,  with  his  French  training  in  the 


Portrait     of     Fru     Moiniche,     by     Mathias 
Stoltenberg.     In   the  National   Gallery 


M()I)1<:RN   NORWMCilAN   AKI^  453 

school  ol  I);i\icl,  and  the  jiortrait  painter  ol  the  aristocracy, 
Stolteiiberg  was  the  j)ainter  ol  the  more  everychiy  official  class 
througiiout  the  country  in  the  good  old  Biedcrmeier  days. 
He  evidently  received  his  schooling  in  Denmark,  since  his 
pictures  betray  a  most  obvious  relationship  to  the  portrait 
art  of  the  Danes  L'ckersberg,  Kobke,  and  Jensen.  The  old 
clergymen  and  county  judges  in  their  robes  of  office  and 
their  elderly  ladies  in  elegant  fluted  bonnets  fastened  with 
silk  bows  beneath  their  chins — such  was  his  clientele.  By 
preference  he  paints  rather  small  portrait  busts  to  be  hung 
above  the  damask-covered  mahogany  sofa  in  the  living- 
room,  in  full  face  so  that  all  the  features  stand  out,  open 
and  straightforward  countenances  with  a  friendly,  artless 
expression  and  a  wide-awake  air,  but  with  the  furrows  of 
time  frankly  marked  about  the  mouth  and  eyes.  Stoltenberg 
is  a  keen  observer  with  a  telling  grasp  of  character,  and  in 
the  great  range  of  his  portraits  one  would  search  in  vain 
for  mannerisms  or  repetitions.  It  can  by  no  means  be  denied 
that  his  simplicity  and  awkw^ardness  in  certain  of  the  pictures 
approach  dilettanteism  and  that  his  draughtsmanship  often 
reveals  its  weaknesses.  What  saves  him,  nevertheless,  is  his 
fresh,  joyous  sense  of  color,  his  juxtaposition  of  pure,  clear 
pigments  in  dresses,  scarfs,  ribbons,  and  flowers,  collocations 
which  in  all  their  unexpected  innocence  at  times  produce  a 
positively  charming  effect.  Stoltenberg  is  one  of  those 
painters  who  confirm  the  fact,  w^hich,  to  tell  the  truth,  we  are 
glad  to  have  confirmed,  that  the  strength  of  our  painting  lies 
in  color. 


II 


TIDEMAND  AND  GUDE.     DUSSELDORF 
TECHNIQUE  AND  NORWEGIAN  SUBJECTS 

THE  next  generation  of  painters,  who  emerged  In  the 
forties  and  whose  tendencies  became  dominant  in  our 
painting  during  the  next  decade  or  two,  did  not  follow 
in  the  foot-steps  of  Dahl  and  Fearnley.  They  proceeded 
to  Diisseldorf,  where  a  new  romantic  school  had  grown 
powerful  and  Indeed  supreme;  as  distinct  from  Dahl's  inti- 
mate worship  of  nature,  it  was  a  more  literary  and  eclectic 
art  of  echoes,  working  according  to  fixed  recipes  of  the 
studio,  an  art  with  a  leaning  toward  the  theatrical,  with  a 
taste  for  all  that  was  sweet  and  sultry  in  coloring.  Judging 
it  as  a  school,  we  cannot,  with  our  present  views  on  the 
functions  of  painting,  say  that  the  tendency  In  Diisseldorf 
was  the  most  wholesome  and  beneficial  for  young  talents. 
The  situation  was  quite  clear  to  Dahl  who,  although  him- 
self resident  in  Germany,  issued  a  warning  against  the  new 
German  movement.  Beware,  he  says,  of  the  deceptive 
glasses  that  color  all  things  red  and  yellow,  regardless  of 
aught  but  pleasing  the  great  crowd,  which  is  easily  dazzled 
by  coquettish  brilliance.  He  finds  the  Danish  school  of 
the  day  much  less  contaminated  and  more  faithful  to  nature 
than  the  German.  Therefore  he  also  advises  sending  the 
beginner  first  to  Copenhagen  and  afterwards,  when  he  has 
gained  experience,  sending  him  farther,  especially  to  Paris; 
as  a  reason  for  this  counsel  he  asserts  that  Diisseldorf  has 
not  had  so  helpful  an  influence  upon  young  Norwegian 
painters  as  commonly  supposed,  and  that  the  desirability  of 
a  simpler  point  of  view  has  frequently  been  manifest. 

454 


MODERN   NOKWi'X.IAN   ARI"  455 

What  Norwegian  painting  might  have  become  in  the 
hands  of  the  group  of  talented  youth  who  came  to  the  fore 
in  those  days  if  they  had  followed  the  path  indicated  by 
Dahl — to  Denmark  and  thereafter  to  France,  where  art  life 
was  in  healthy  and  luxurious  flower — instead  of  going  by 
way  of  Diisseldorf,  is  a  subject  for  dreaming  and  specula- 
tion. How  Tidemand's  lyric  vein  might  have  developed 
and  how  his  characterization  of  humanity  might  have  been 
deepened  through  artistic  impressions  in  the  land  of  Dela- 
croix and  Millet!  How  Gude's  mild  and  equable  sense 
of  the  beauty  of  nature  and  Cappelen's  great  talents  as  a 
nature  poet  might  imaginably  have  been  clothed  in  other 
picturesque  shapes  if,  instead  of  graduating  from  the  Acad- 
emy in  Diisseldorf,  they  had  been  privileged  to  come  in 
contact  with  the  masters  of  landscape  in  Fontainebleau  and 
to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  spiritual  art  of  Corot !  How 
the  original  and  earthy  strength  of  the  Norse  endowment 
might  conceivably  have  broken  a  new  path  for  itself  if  It 
had  come  under  the  sway  of  the  brutal  peasant  genius  of 
Courbet  instead  of  the  Influence  of  the  Diisseldorf  practice 
of  art  for  the  sake  of  art  dealers !  Concerning  these  and 
other  possibilities  one  may  dream  and  dispute. 

The  Indisputable  fact  remains,  however,  that  Norwegian 
painting  was  left  a  remote  stranger  to  the  greatest  thing 
that  happened  In  the  history  of  art  In  the  nineteenth  century 
— the  burgeoning  of  French  painting  In  the  romanticism  of 
Delacroix  and  Its  bursting  forth  Into  naturalism.  This  It 
was  reserved  for  a  new  generation  to  see — In  part:  the 
generation  of  the  seventies.  Therefore,  too,  they  gave  their 
entire  energy  to  the  breaking  down  of  those  German  barriers 
with  which  our  art  and  the  artistic  perceptions  of  our 
public  had  been  walled  in.  Yet  even  If  the  foreign  Influ- 
ence which  from  this  time  forth  becomes  predominant  was 
not  the  most  fortunate,  the  period  of  the  forties  and  fifties 
stands  out  as  a  kind  of  golden  age  In  Norwegian  art, 
richly  endowed  as  It  was  with  talent,  and  great  as  was  the 
national  contribution  in  the  universal  struggle  toward  a 
larger  culture. 


456  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  years  about  1830 — the  year  of  the  July  revolution — 
had  witnessed  In  Norway  a  period  of  kindling  national  con- 
sciousness after  the  time  of  trial  following  the  war  and  the 
union  in  18 14.  The  regaining  of  freedom,  the  advance  in 
self-government,  the  great  past  of  the  nation  and  its  antici- 
pated revival  filled  all  minds  with  faith  in  the  capacity  of 
the  land  and  the  people — a  faith  in  which  Henrik  Werge- 
land  was  the  glowing  core.  In  verse  and  in  speech  resounded 
the  praises  of  the  doughty  Norse  yeoman  and  his  rock-ribbed 
land.  Little  was  actually  known,  however,  either  of  the 
yeoman  or  of  the  land.  Accordingly  there  followed  in  the 
forties  a  period  of  positive  effort  directed  toward  acquiring 
a  knowledge  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants,  a  period  of 
intellectual  self-discovery  in  which  science,  poetry,  and  art 
proceed  side  by  side.  In  the  subsequent  romantic  revival 
there  awoke  realization  of  the  need  of  connecting  past  with 
present.  Researches  in  history  were  begun  which  had  their 
chief  representative  in  P.  A.  Munch,  and  systematic  work 
was  set  on  foot  to  uncover  and  to  preserve  our  antiquities 
and  to  collect  the  treasures  of  the  popular  imagination.  It 
was  during  these  years  that  our  folk-tales,  legends,  and 
ballads  were  brought  together  and  interpreted  by  Asbjorn- 
sen,  Moe,  and  Landstad,  and  that  composers  like  Kjerulf 
and  musicians  like  Ole  Bull  began  to  draw  upon  the  rich 
wells  of  folk  melody.  In  this  national  renascence  belong 
also  the  names  of  Tidemand  and  Gude. 

Adolf  Tidemand  was  born  in  Mandal  in  the  great  year, 
1 8 14.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  went  to  Copenhagen  and 
became  a  pupil  in  the  Academy  of  Art,  where  he  studied 
continuously  for  five  years.  Later  he  proceeded  to  Diissel- 
dorf  in  order  to  prepare  for  historical  painting.  He  seems 
to  have  had  some  idea  of  becoming  the  painter  of  our  heroic 
past;  but  he  soon  realized  that  there  were  more  immediate 
tasks  before  him.  Hitherto  no  Norwegian  painter  or  poet 
had  devoted  his  talents  wholly  to  depicting  the  Norwegian 
folk  type  as  it  appeared  In  the  farmer,  the  farmer  as  he 
actually  existed  at  that  day,  the  heir  of  the  traditions  of  the 
past.     This  became  the  life-long  mission  of  Tidemand  as  a 


M()I)I:RN   NORWiailAN   ART  457 

painter,  to  portray  tlic  Norwcjj^iaii  larmcr,  Ins  manners  and 
customs,  his  distinctive  inheritance  of  medieval  culture,  his 
immemorial  architecture,  his  particolored  national  costumes 
and  magnificent  ornaments,  his  patriarchal  mode  of  living, 
and  his  simple,  deep  emotions.  In  this  special  field  I'ide- 
manci  \cry  soon  became  an  extremely  popular  artist. 
Throughout  Norway  his  renown  has  long  since  over- 
shadowed that  of  all  others  in  the  popular  estimation;  and 
in  Germany  at  the  height  of  his  career  he  was  reckoned 
among  the  most  prominent  painters  in  the  Germanic  world, 
w^as  honored  with  decorations  and  cumbered  with  commis- 
sions. 

The  artistic  conceptions  of  our  own  time  have,  mean- 
while, progressed  far  beyond  the  ideals  of  that  day.  Meas- 
ured by  modern  demands  upon  painting,  Tidemand's  colored 
drawings,  designed  according  to  the  rules  of  composition 
dictated  by  a  theatrical  scheme  of  aesthetics,  have  only  rela- 
tive value  as  art;  and  his  romantic  portrayal  of  the  life  of 
the  people  with  its  ostentatious  ideality,  its  lingering  Sunday 
peace,  and  its  idyllic  air  has  greater  interest  for  the  ethnog- 
rapher and  the  student  of  the  history  of  civilization  than 
for  the  student  of  folk  psychology.  However  that  may  be, 
one  should,  in  the  interest  of  personal  appreciation  and  the 
understanding  of  aesthetic  evolution,  examine  the  art  of  the 
past  historically,  laying  aside  so  far  as  possible  all  ephemeral 
prejudices.  In  estimating  the  art  under  discussion  one  ought 
therefore  to  seek  less  after  technical  mastery  and  pictorial 
refinement  than  after  narrative  skill,  power  of  representa- 
tion, and  sense  of  harmony.  All  these  qualities  are  to  be 
found  to  a  marked  degree  in  Tidemand's  most  celebrated 
picture,  his  masterpiece  The  Disciples  of  Hauge,  now  in  our 
National  Gallery.  The  composition  dates  from  1848.  At 
that  time  he  painted  the  original,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the 
gallery  at  Diisseldorf ;  the  replica  in  our  National  Gallery 
is  from  the  year  1852.  The  picture  represents  a  lay 
preacher,  of  the  sect  founded  by  Hans  Nilsen  Hauge,  con- 
ducting a  prayer-meeting  in  an  old  Norwegian  cabin.  The 
interior  itself,  with  its  smoky,  raftered  ceiling,  its  louver, 


458 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The    Disciples 


of    Hauge,    by    Adolf    Tidemand.     In    the    National 
Gallery 


and  its  fireplace  In  the  middle  of  the  floor,  engages  our 
Interest,  as  do  the  old-fashioned,  variegated  costumes.  The 
composition  abounds  in  figures,  and  still  is  definitely  and 
harmoniously  designed  by  means  of  groups  which  rise  in 
the  form  of  a  triangle  to  the  resplendent  central  image  of 
the  preacher.  Gentle  and  fair  of  face  he  stands  just  beneath 
the  light,  which  streams  through  the  louver  and  casts  a  trans- 
figuring gleam  over  his  features.  As  sunbeams  are  refracted 
in  a  prism,  so  the  words  of  the  preacher  are  dispersed  Into 
rays  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers  and  reflected  in  the  expres- 
sion of  their  faces  through  the  whole  scale,  from  indifference 
to  awe,  from  doubt  and  brooding  to  resignation  and  faith. 
By  means  of  a  chain  of  contrasts — in  age,  sex,  type,  tempera- 
ment— the  Impression  is  conveyed.  The  central  link  in  the 
chain  Is  the  old  giant  in  a  red  vest,  seated  In  a  chair  hollowed 
out  of  the  solid  trunk  of  a  tree.  What  this  old  Norseman 
really  looked  like  before  he  was  adapted  to  the  picture 
through  the  mediation  of  an  Academy  model  in  Diisseldorf 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  459 


Study  for  the  Disciples  of  Hauge,  by  Adolf  Tidemand 

the  painter  has  permitted  us  to  see  in  a  magnificent  portrait 
study  of  a  mountain  farmer,  to  be  found  in  the  National 
Gallery,  an  old  fellow  in  a  red  cap,  somber,  weather-beaten, 
and  severe.  On  the  whole,  in  order  to  know  and  to  appre- 
ciate Tidemand  at  his  best,  both  as  a  painter  and  as  a  folk 
psychologist,  one  must  go  to  his  studies.  In  them  he  stands 
face  to  face  with  his  people,  far  from  German  sentimentality 
and  school  tradition,  boldly  realistic  in  outlook,  and  painting 
what  he  sees.    Especially  in  the  studies  of  interiors  he  mani- 


460 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


MODERN   NORWl'XilyXN   ART  461 

fcsts  a  line  appreciation  of  color  which  his  pictures,  strongly 
chromatic  as  they  arc,  do  not  give  evidence  of,  Tideniand 
was  an  unusually  prolific  painter;  and  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  his  production  was  extremely  uneven,  the  deep  and  the 
shallow,  the  true  and  the  false,  the  seriously  executed  and 
the  altogether  too  fugitive  alternating  in  his  work. 

In  1845  Tidemand  established  himself  in  Diisseldorf  and 
remained  there  the  rest  of  his  days;  during  this  period  one 
picture  of  Norwegian  rural  life  followed  upon  the  other  in 
rapid  succession.  Among  these  is  the  Catechization  in  a 
Norwegian  Country  Church,  dating  from  1847.  This  pic- 
ture, which  Tidemand  executed  for  King  Oscar  I,  now  hangs 
in  the  palace  at  Christiania.  It  Is  probably  the  artist's  most 
popular  canvas,  partly  on  account  of  its  own  good  qualities 
and  partly  on  account  of  the  amusing  and  characteristic  text 
written  for  It  by  Asbjornsen.  We  all  recall  from  our  child- 
hood this  diverting  Incident  of  the  examination,  the  scene 
of  which  Is  laid  In  the  ancient  timber  church  of  HItterdal. 
We  have  all  been  entertained  by  this  ludicrous  typical  school- 
master with  his  wizened  body  and  conceited  air  and  by  the 
tall  overgrown  farmer  lad  whose  Ignorance  fills  his  pre- 
ceptor with  contemptuous  pity — when  all  Is  said,  a  successful 
attempt  at  bold  comicality  on  the  part  of  a  painter  whose 
talents  ordinarily  would  be  described  as  lyrlc-sentlmental. 

Among  his  later  works  may  be  mentioned:  A  Norwegian 
Funeral  Feast,  from  1854;  A  Fight  at  a  Norwegian  Rural 
Wedding,  from  1864,  now  In  an  English  private  gallery;  and 
The  Fanatics,  from  1866,  now  In  the  National  Museum  at 
Stockholm.  In  these  paintings,  especially  the  last  two,  Tide- 
mand reveals  a  surprising  gift  for  dramatic  presentation. 
Here  he  has  striven  to  create  art  In  which  the  storms  of  life 
roar  and  the  waves  of  passion  roll  high.  Adolf  Tidemand 
spent  his  life  as  a  professor  at  the  Academy  In  Diisseldorf; 
he  died  during  a  summer  visit  to  Christiania  In  1876.  Among 
the  generality  of  the  people  he  Is  still  probably  our  most 
beloved  painter;  and  his  popularly  designed  pictures  have 
contributed  much  toward  opening  the  eyes  of  the  many  both 
to  art  and  to  the  people  Itself. 


462 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Mountain  Heights,  by  Hans  Gude,   1857.     In  the  National   Gallery 


With  the  name  of  Tidemand  the  name  of  Hans  Gude  is 
always  closely  associated;  so  closely,  in  fact,  that  the  two 
are  more  often  mentioned  together  than  separately.  Born  in 
Christiania  in  1825,  Gude  was,  it  is  true,  eleven  years 
younger  than  Tidemand;  but  he  came  to  Diisseldorf  at  a 
very  early  age,  and  the  two  painters  were  soon  intimately 
joined  In  friendship  and  co-operation.  Accordingly  the 
landscape  painter  Gude  stands  beside  the  figure  painter  Tide- 
mand as  the  second  of  the  two  chief  personages  in  our  art 
in  the  middle  years  of  the  century. 

Before  1854,  the  year  in  which  Gude  was  appointed  a 
professor  at  the  Academy  In  Diisseldorf,  he  lived  alter- 
nately In  Norway  and  in  the  Rhine  city.  During  the  summer 
he  invariably  travelled  In  Norway,  and  on  these  journeys 
he  learned  to  know  the  various  scenlcally  beautiful  regions 
of  his  native  land.  In  the  summer  of  1 843  he  met  Tidemand 
on  a  jaunt  through  Sogn  and  Hardanger;  In  the  autumn,  he 
writes,  they  returned  to  Diisseldorf,  their  portfolios 
crammed  with  sketches.     The  following  winter  he  painted 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  463 


The  Entrance  to  the  Christiania   Harbor,   by  Hans   Gude.     In   the 
National  Gallery 

the  first  of  the  pictures  that  have  borne  the  title  Mountain 
Heights;  it  was  his  debut,  created  a  sensation,  and  was  pur- 
chased by  Kunstforeningen  in  Christiania.  At  that  time  he 
was  only  nineteen  years  of  age.  His  next  picture,  which 
made  a  stir  at  the  exposition  in  Berlin  and  was  sold  there, 
was  A  Norwegian  Fjord  in  Sunshine.  These  subjects  are 
noteworthy.  Gude's  art  was,  during  his  entire  life,  princi- 
pally occupied  with  the  portrayal  of  Norwegian  mountains 
and  fjords. 

Between  the  years  1844  and  1858  there  follows  a  long 
series  of  paintings  of  mountain  heights.  Among  them  are 
Mountain  Heights  at  Sunrise,  from  1855,  and  Mountain 
Heights,  from  1857,  both  of  which  are  now  in  the  National 
Gallery.  The  last-named,  particularly,  belongs  with  the 
best  things  Gude  has  produced,  and  indeed  ranks  among 
the  capital  pieces  in  the  landscape  art  of  Norway.  The 
painting  takes  us  up  on  the  moors  of  a  cold  evening  in 
autumn.  The  long  ridge  of  the  plateau  extends  in  toward 
a  distant  chain  of  peaks  upon  which  the  fog  lies  heavily; 
and,  like  an  eye  deserted  by  hope,  the  little  mountain  tarn 


464 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Bridal  Procession  in  Hardanger,  by  Adolf  Tidemand  and  Hans 
Gude.     In  the  National  Gallery 

gazes  out  from  that  dark-blue  embodied  solitude  lying  rigid 
beneath  angry  skies  and  chilled  through  by  the  Icy  gusts  of 
approaching  night. 

That  Dahl's  art  made  the  strongest  Impression  upon  him 
in  youth  Gude  has  himself  confessed  in  the  warmest  terms 
in  his  Recollections.  Without  doubt  It  would  have  been 
extremely  fortunate,  as  well  for  Norwegian  art  on  the  whole 
as  for  Gude  himself,  if  from  the  very  first  he  had  escaped 
Diisseldorf  and  had  immediately  become  a  pupil  of  Dahl, 
who  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  powers  and  was  engaged 
In  teaching  at  Dresden.  The  fact  Is  that  In  Gude's  native 
endowment  there  was  a  dangerous  tendency  toward  theat- 
rical spurlousness;  The  Bridal  Procession  In  Hardanger  Is 
nothing  else  than  reminiscences  from  an  emotional  evening 
of  tableaux  and  music  at  the  theatre.  Nor  have  his  decora- 
tive landscapes  upon  themes  from  Fridthjof's  Saga,  painted 
in  1849  '^^  th^  dining-room  at  Oscarshal,  any  very  profound 
pictorial  value. 

At  bottom,  however,  Gude  was  naturally  a  realist;  little 
by  little  he  worked  his  way  out  of  the  mists  of  romanticism. 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  465 

The  decisive  moment  came  in  Gude's  life  as  an  artist  when 
it  ihiwned  upon  him  that  the  cleverness  of  Diisseldorf  and 
all  its  concessions  to  bad  taste  might  be  leading  in  the  wrong 
direction.  At  once  he  resolutely  took  flight,  resigning  his 
professorship  at  the  Academy  and  adventuring  into  the 
world  with  uncertain  prospects.  In  Wales,  where  he  made 
his  first  sojourn,  he  painted  open  air  subjects  the  year  round. 
His  charming  Ivy  Bridge  was  done  in  Wales  In  1862.  In 
1864  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  professor  at  the  Acad- 
emy in  Karlsruhe.  Here  he  exercised  an  active  influence  as 
a  teacher  until  1875,  when  he  was  called  to  a  professorship 
at  the  Academy  in  Berlin;  there  he  remained  till  his  death 
in  1903.  Among  well  known  Norwegian  artists  who  were 
pupils  of  Gude  In  Karlsruhe  may  be  mentioned  Otto  SIndIng, 
Eilif  Peterssen,  Fritz  Thaulow,  Kitty  Klelland,  Fredrik  Col- 
lett,  and  Thorolf  Holmboe. 

Gude's  art  has  a  very  broad  reach.  In  his  earlier  pictures 
the  subjects  are  preferably  drawn  from  mountain  heights 
and  from  the  widely  contrasted  scenery  of  the  Westland; 
in  later  years,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  more  often  the  less 
pretentious  natural  features  of  eastern  Norway,  the  East- 
land, that  attracted  him.  From  lofty  mountain  expanses 
to  the  farms  of  Smaalenene  and  the  groves  of  Jarlsberg, 
from  the  stormy  shores  of  the  ocean  to  the  smooth  bays  and 
inlets  of  the  Christiania  fjord,  from  the  highlands  of  Wales 
or  the  misty  mountain  regions  of  Scotland  to  the  low,  sandy 
coast  of  Riigen  and  its  long,  even  ground  swells — these  are 
the  paths  that  Gude's  art  has  traversed. 

With  the  year  i860  begins  that  long  series  of  pictures 
from  the  seashore  which  thenceforth  are  a  constant  feature 
of  Gude's  production  till  the  very  last.  He  is,  to  be  sure, 
still  able  to  paint  mountain  and  foliage  and  river;  but  the 
sea  fascinates  him  most.  He  loves  to  observe  the  life  of 
the  waves,  to  watch  the  moods  of  the  ocean  through  all  the 
transitions  between  storm  and  calm.  What  are  no  doubt 
the  best  of  his  marines  had  their  origin  out  on  the  Christiania 
fjord  on  a  beautiful  day  in  summer.  One  of  the  most  popu- 
lar among  them  is  called  The  Entrance  to  Christiania  Hai;^ 


466  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

bor,  with  Akershus  and  the  BcErum  Hills  in  the  background. 
It  is  a  day  of  light,  fair-weather  clouds  that  half  obscure  the 
sun,  and  a  soft  southern  breeze  is  driving  the  white-caps  at 
a  merry  pace  in  toward  the  anchorage,  while  the  veiled  sun- 
shine flows  like  molten  silver  over  the  undulating  surface. 

Paintings  by  Gude  are  to  be  found,  besides  the  great 
numbers  in  the  public  and  private  collections  throughout 
Norway,  also  in  galleries  in  Stockholm,  Copenhagen,  and 
Gothenburg,  in  Amsterdam  and  Rotterdam,  in  Dresden, 
Berlin,  and  many  other  German  cities. 

Gude  was  admittedly  a  hard  worker,  but  his  work  seems 
never  to  have  given  him  difficulty,  never  to  have  caused  him 
pain.  The  charming  was  to  him  a  natural  form  of  expres- 
sion. Selection,  moderation,  fear  of  extremes  mark  every- 
thing that  he  has  done.  All  that  might  disturb  his  own  poise 
and  harmony  he  avoided.  Therefore  he  avoided  also  the 
impressionism  which  in  the  eighties  penetrated  from  French 
art  into  Norwegian;  he  remained  a  stranger  to  it  and  hostile 
to  it. 

August  Cappelen  was  only  two  years  younger  than  Gude, 
having  been  born  in  Skien  in  1827  ;  but  he  became  a  pupil  of 
Gude  in  Diisseldorf,  and  no  other  romanticist  among  Nor- 
wegian painters  has  possessed  a  richer  endowment  or  a 
talent  more  instinct  with  personality  than  he.  Nor  has  any 
of  them  come  nearer  to  attaining  European  reputation  than 
Cappelen.  Yet  after  six  years  of  constantly  ascending  de- 
velopment, his  artistic  career,  which  promised  the  greatest 
things,  was  cut  short  by  death.  Overtaxed  and  overworked, 
he  died  in  Diisseldorf  in  1852,  not  more  than  twenty-five 
years  of  age.     In  him  our  painting  lost  a  great  nature  poet. 

Cappelen's  Forest  Landscape,  disclosing  a  Telemarken 
waterfall,  is  painted  with  deep  feeling  and  represents  typical 
romantic  art.  A  heavily  wooded  mountain  side,  overlaid 
with  fog  that  hides  all  but  a  narrow  passage  of  sky  over- 
head, opens  to  permit  the  flow  of  a  river  in  spring  freshet. 
In  the  mossy  wild,  among  layers  of  gigantic  boulders  and 
rotting  windfalls,  two  great  pines  are  still  standing  with 
broken  crowns  and  lopped  trunks.   The  reddish,  tawny  trunk 


MODERN  NORWECilAN  AkF 


467 


Forest    Landscape    in 


Telemarken,    by    August    Cappelen.     In 
National   Gallery 


the 


contrasts  sharply  with  the  black  depths  of  the  forest;  and  it 
raises  defiantly  aloft  the  small  remnant  of  a  crown,  which 
stretches  out  to  one  side  like  a  woman's  clipped  hair  waving 
in  the  wind.  In  the  foreground  the  cataract  foams  directly 
toward  the  spectator  and  breaks  the  silence  with  its  white 
clamor.  Diminutive  men  are  pottering  about  In  this  vast 
domain  of  nature,  some  lumberers  occupied  in  loosening  logs 
that  have  become  jammed  In  the  water-course.  Their  toil 
in  those  cold  spring  waters  remains  almost  unheeded.  They 
are  lost  among  the  boulders,  the  sounds  of  their  labor  are 
overborne  by  the  roar  of  the  mountain  torrent,  their  little- 
ness is  accentuated  manifold  by  the  tallness  of  the  pines. 
They  are  there  only  to  increase  the  wildness  and  solitude  of 
the  scene,  which  from  the  picture  strikes  out  upon  the  spec- 
tator with  the  smell  of  pines  and  with  mist  and  spray  from 
the  icy  waters  of  the  stream.  This  scene  from  nature  is 
painted  in  deep-toned,  juicy  colors,  tints  of  brown  and  velvet- 
black  grading  up  to  the  creamy-yellow,  bubbling,  soapy  white 
of  the  river  foam. 


468  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

The  Dying  Forest  Primeval  is  the  title  of  another  picture 
of  his,  the  most  romantic  in  Norwegian  art:  mighty  boulders 
carried  hither  by  glaciers  in  the  morning  of  time,  gigantic 
prostrate  pine  trees  in  whose  crowns  tempests  formerly  have 
raged,  the  decayed  trunk  which  lightning  once  splintered 
and  struck  with  palsy  at  the  root,  the  luxuriant  moss  untrod- 
den by  the  foot  of  man,  the  rotting  earth  in  which  not  even 
swamp  vegetation  can  grow,  and  above  all  this  dead  and 
doomed  nature  the  quiet,  golden  limpidity  of  an  evening  sky. 
The  painting  is  Cappelen's  very  last,  unfinished  work.  It 
has  the  effect  of  a  mood  of  death,  felt  by  himself.  Both  of 
these  pictures  date  from  1852,  and  are  to  be  found  in  the 
National  Gallery.  More  eminent  still  are  Cappelen's  small 
studies  from  nature,  of  which  the  gallery  likewise  possesses 
a  respectable  number. 

One  Norwegian  painter,  who  hitherto  had  been  all  but 
unknown  to  the  art-loving  public,  but  who  was  drawn  into 
the  hght  at  the  Jubilee  Exposition  in  Christiania  in  19 14  and 
thus  won  a  posthumous  reputation  which  certainly  neither 
he  nor  any  of  his  contemporaries  ever  dreamed  of,  is  the 
landscapist  Lars  Hertervig  of  Stavanger.  Hertervig  was 
born  in  Tysvaer,  near  Stavanger,  in  1830;  he  spent  some 
years  as  a  journeyman  painter  in  Stavanger,  but  came  in 
1850  to  Diisseldorf,  where  he  was  a  pupil  in  the  Academy 
at  the  same  time  as  August  Cappelen.  Early  in  his  career, 
however,  his  health  was  broken,  and  as  a  consequence  he 
became  a  prey  to  mental  afflictions  that  resulted  in  an  incur- 
able melancholia.  Already  in  1852  illness  compelled  him 
to  return  to  his  home  in  Stavanger,  where  he  passed  the  rest 
of  his  life  in  the  most  straitened  circumstances,  partly  as  an 
artisan  and  partly  as  an  artist.  In  landscape  painting  he 
seems  for  a  time  to  have  had  a  certain  repute  in  Stavanger. 
When,  however,  near  the  close  of  the  eighties,  Alexander 
Klelland  In  a  most  warmly  sympathetic  article  drew  atten- 
tion to  the  aged  stricken  artist,  Hertervig  was  almost  for- 
gotten; and  he  died  In  the  poor-house  at  Stavanger  in  1902. 

Hertervlg's  landscape  art  Is  the  product  of  a  dreamer's 
fantasy,  and  yet  Is  brought  about  through  close  association 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


469 


Ancient     Pine-forest,     by     Lars     Hertervig.     Privately     owned     in 
Stavanger 

with  nature.  At  first  his  work  did  not  have  any  special 
marks  of  individuality.  The  fjord  pictures  from  the  Diis- 
seldorf  period  and  the  immediately  succeeding  period  have 
the  customary  dark  and  theatrical  coloring  that  distinguishes 
so  many  other  men  of  that  school;  or,  he  would  paint  roman- 
tic wood  landscapes  somewhat  in  the  vein  of  Cappelen,  dark 
and  golden,  but  softer,  more  veiled,  and  as  it  were  steaming 
beneath  a  vaporous  sky.  As  time  goes  by  a  strong  personal 
feeling  for  nature  enters  into  his  expression  and  removes  it 
farther  from  the  tendency  of  the  school,  not,  however,  in  the 
direction  of  naturalism  but  rather  in  the  direction  of  a 
species  of  clairvoyant  nature  mysticism.  His  coloring  be- 
comes hardened  in  deep,  usually  sombre  and  cold  tones  in 
which  blues  prevail,  and  his  draughtsmanship  in  the  por- 
trayal, let  us  say,  of  solitary,  gnarled  pines  upon  a  stony  slope, 
may  at  times  assume  an  almost  supernatural  energy  of  design. 
His  paintings  in  this  kind  are  informed  with  a  peculiarly 


470  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

dark  and  cold  melancholy  not  to  be  found  in  the  work  of 
any  other.  Yet  there  remain  from  his  hand  also  luminous 
pictures  of  rock-bound  roadsteads  in  which  with  the  sureness 
of  the  sleep-walker  he  has  brought  about  wonderfully  expres- 
sive color  harmonies  in  blues,  greys,  and  browns,  otherwise 
wholly  unknown  to  the  art  of  Diisseldorf.  And  finally,  in  a 
state  of  isolation  and  ecstacy,  this  half  dilettante  painter 
has  produced  Westland  fjord  landscapes  of  a  dreamy  and 
transfigured  unreality  which  none  the  less  has  much  more  in 
common  with  nature  than  all  the  calculated  studio  effects  of 
Diisseldorf  art. 

In  that  Westland  of  his  the  stricken  man  spent  his  days, 
lonely  and  unknown,  and  yet  developed  an  Individual  style  in 
which  romantic  sentiment  is  united  with  a  delicate,  clear 
scale  of  tints,  almost  like  water-colors — his  version  of  the 
plein-air  method.  His  favorite  subject  is  an  expanse  of 
clouds  that  in  quiet,  damp  weather  tower  up  into  banks, 
reflecting  their  image  in  water,  and  fading  away  illimitably 
toward  the  source  of  light.  One  cannot  escape  the  impres- 
sion that  this  landscape  art  is  based  upon  religious  rapture. 

An  artist  of  striking  peculiarities,  who  hitherto  perhaps 
has  not  received  due  attention,  is  the  painter  of  sea-pieces, 
Peder  Balke,  who  was  born  in  1804  and  died  in  1887.  Yet 
his  pictures  appeal  to  our  interest  for  reasons  wholly  dif- 
ferent from  those  that  govern  in  the  case  of  Hertervig. 
Balke's  facile  and  arrogantly  handled  marines  and  small 
studies  from  Nordland  in  nearly  monotone  grey-green  are 
without  parallel  in  Norwegian  painting,  but  reveal  patent 
English  influence.  He  was  no  doubt  the  first  Norwegian 
artist  who  used  the  palette-knife,  and  his  treatment  in  gen- 
eral is  striking  and  piquant;  but  the  effect  is  too  much  that 
of  external  virtuosity  to  be  of  more  than  merely  technical 
importance. 

Nearly  contemporaneous  with  Cappelen  was  the  land- 
scape painter  Johan  Fredrik  Eckersberg,  who  was  born  in 
Drammen  in  1822.  Among  all  the  men  trained  in  Di^issel- 
dorf  he  occupies  a  distinctive  position,  since  after  about  two 
years  of  study  he  made  the  firm  resolution  of  returning  to 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  471 


From   Jotunheimen,   by  Johan   Fredrik   Eckersberg.     In   the   National 
Gallery 

the  land  of  his  birth  and  of  forging  his  future  there  by 
painting  the  nature  of  Norway  on  Norwegian  soil.  In 
choice  of  themes  and  in  character  Eckersberg's  art  often 
seems  determined  by  the  influence  of  Gude;  yet  Eckersberg 
has  a  cooler,  drier,  less  graceful  talent.  Mountain  regions 
became  Eckersberg's  special  domain.  His  large  picture 
dating  from  1866,  now  in  the  National  Gallery,  From  Jotun- 
heimen, with  the  naked  expanses  stretching  in  toward  Glitre- 
tind,  which  lies  bathed  in  sheer  morning  light,  represents  his 
manner  very  well.  A  particular  significance  in  the  artistic 
development  of  our  people  attaches  to  Eckersberg  as  the 
teacher  of  younger  generations  of  painters.  Till  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1 870  he  conducted  at  Christiania  an  art  school 
in  which  he  was  himself  enthusiastically  active  as  an 
instructor. 

A  typical  Diisseldorf  painter  is  Morten  Miiller,  who  was 
born  in  1828  and  died  in  191 1.  He  showed  exceptional 
brilliance  in  the  portrayal  of  the  Norwegian  pine  forests. 
In  a  great  number  of  larger  and  smaller  woodland  pictures 
he  gave  evidence  of  pompous  decorative  ability  in  which 
there  is  decisiveness  of  stroke  and  juiciness  of  coloring  but 
no  very  profound  sense  of  subtle  values.     In  the  National 


472  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Gallery,  it  should  be  added,  he  is  represented  by  an  effective 
picture  on  a  theme  from  an  entirely  different  source,  A 
Stormy  Day  on  the  Hardanger  Fjord,  dated  1866,  and  also 
by  a  large  canvas.  The  Landing  of  Sinclair  in  Romsdal, 
dated  1876,  the  last  of  which  he  painted  in  collaboration 
with  Tidemand. 

The  pictures  of  Erik  Bodom,  whose  life  spanned  the  years 
between  1829  and  1879,  had  somewhat  the  same  tendency 
toward  the  romantic  in  landscape  art,  while  Christian  Wex- 
elsen,  who  lived  from  1830  till  1883,  in  gentler  vein  painted 
the  Eastland  summer  and  the  natural  features  about  the 
Christiania  fjord. 

The  Diisseldorf  school  also  has  a  specialist  of  some  rank 
as  an  animal  painter,  namely  Anders  Askevold,  born  in  rural 
Sondmore  in  1855.  The  life  of  the  mountain  dairies  or 
SEeters,  with  which  he  was  familiar  from  childhood,  became 
his  particular  field.  He  paints  the  cattle  on  their  way  to 
the  mountain  pastures,  in  ferry  barges,  or  on  the  level  graz- 
ing grounds  at  the  crossings  of  streams  and  mountain  lakes; 
always  he  presents  them  in  groups  or  by  droves,  not  by  single 
types  or  individuals  as  Paul  Potter  pictured  animals  for  the 
sake  of  their  character,  but  by  whole  herds,  lowing  and 
jangling  their  bells  as  they  seek  the  water-courses  at  noon 
or  at  evening  are  driven  full-uddered,  frisking  and  trotting, 
into  the  sster  enclosures. 

An  excellent  painter  of  animals,  who  belongs  only  by 
half  to  Norwegian  art,  was  J.  C.  Dahl's  only  son,  Siegwald 
Dahl,  of  Dresden,  He  was  born  in  1827  and  died  in  1902. 
His  training  he  received  in  Paris  and  more  notably  in  Lon- 
don, where  Landseer's  celebrated  animal  pictures  influenced 
him  especially.  Siegwald  Dahl  on  occasion  also  painted  very 
good  portraits. 

It  is  significant  of  Norwegian  art  in  the  nineteenth  century 
that  landscape  painting  has  a  disproportionate  place  as  com- 
pared with  figure  painting.  The  foreign  public  for  which 
our  Germanized  Norwegian  painters  did  a  great  part  of 
their  work  demanded  above  all  Norwegian  landscapes — 
grand  and  impressive  natural  scenes  from  this  remote  and 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  473 

remarkable  land.  'I'hc  peojilc  of  Norway  were  able  to 
arouse  a  certain  ethnographic  curiosity  abroad  only  when 
they  appeared,  as  they  do  on  Tidemand's  canvases,  in  their 
primitive  cabins,  decked  in  particolored  national  costumes, 
and  exhibiting  the  peculiar  manners  and  usages  inherited 
from  pre-Christian  antiquity.  Everyday  life  among  us  in 
the  present  seemed  too  drab  as  subject  matter  for  these 
artists  only  half  rooted  in  the  home  soil. 

Popular  as  Tidemand's  portrayal  of  the  life  of  the  people 
really  became  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  there  were  not 
many  imitators.  It  was  more  among  Swedish  than  among 
Norwegian  men  of  the  Diisseldorf  school  that  the  influence 
of  his  art  was  felt.  Almost  the  only  one  to  continue  Tide- 
mand's traditions  as  a  painter  of  the  populace  was  Knut 
Bergslien,  a  peasant  lad  born  in  Voss  in  1827,  who  also 
attempted  historic  subjects  from  the  saga  age.  His  best 
known  picture  is  one  entitled,  Birkebein  Ski-runners  Carry- 
ing Haakon  Haakonsson  as  a  Child  over  Filefjeld.  The 
same  year  in  which  he  did  this  work,  1869,  Bergslien  re- 
turned home  and  took  over  Eckersberg's  school  of  painting 
in  Christiania,  where  a  number  of  the  younger  talents  re- 
ceived their  instruction  in  the  grammar  of  the  art. 

A  few  other  figure  painters  are,  It  is  true,  to  be  found 
among  the  landscapists  of  Diisseldorf.  They  were,  how- 
ever, inclined  to  go  elsewhere  for  their  schooling,  and  were 
Indeed  the  first  who  went  In  earnest  to  Paris.  This  was  the 
case  with  the  figure  painters  Arbo,  Isaachsen,  and  Sundt- 
Hansen. 

The  historical  painter  P.  N.  Arbo  was  born  In  1831  and 
died  in  1892.  His  best  efforts  took  shape  in  a  large  dramatic 
composition  on  the  subject  of  Welhaven's  poem  Asgaards- 
reien;  this  picture,  dating  from  1872,  Is  captivating  and  Im- 
posing by  Its  theme  and  by  the  academic  skill  with  which  the 
design,  crowded  as  It  Is  with  figures,  has  been  managed.  The 
artist  has  not  succeeded,  however.  In  imprinting  upon  his 
presentation  that  stamp  of  an  Old  Norse  myth  which  one 
associates  with  the  idea  of  Thor's  wild  hunt  as  It  rages 
through  the  air  on  nights  when  earth  groans  beneath  tem- 


474 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN   ART  475 

pests.  J. CSS  seriously  by  far  one  is  inclined  to  take  the  beau- 
til  ul  shield  maiden  on  the  snorting  black  charger  in  the 
colossal  picture  called  Valkyrie,  painted  before  Arbo  had 
gone  through  the  strict  schooling  he  received  during  a 
lengthy  stay  In  Paris.  In  later  years  this  discerning  and 
cultivated  artist  put  aside  such  bravura  numbers  and  devoted 
himself  by  preference  to  the  representation  of  his  favorite 
animal,  the  horse,  in  small,  delicately  finished  cabinet  pieces. 
Arbo  was  for  many  years  an  influential  member  of  the  board 
of  directors  of  the  National  Gallery  and  of  the  council  of 
the  Arts  and  Crafts  School.  Among  those  who  continued 
Tidemand's  tradition  in  treating  the  life  of  the  people  both 
Isaachsen  and  Sundt-Hansen  may  after  a  fashion  be  counted. 
Yet  neither  of  them  can  be  classed  absolutely  in  the  Diissel- 
dorf  school,  since  both  received  the  strongest  Impressions 
during  years  of  study  at  other  places. 

According  to  the  taste  of  our  time  and  its  conceptions  of 
art,  no  other  among  the  older  figure  painters  is  so  Interesting 
as  Olaf  Isaachsen,  who  was  born  In  Mandal  In  1835  and 
died  in  Chrlstlanssand  In  1893.  Not  only  his  gift  for  color 
and  his  aspiring  romanticism  make  him  an  engrossing  per- 
sonality In  the  generation  to  which  he  belonged,  but  also  the 
circumstance  that  as  the  first  disciple  of  French  painting  In 
Its  great  period  he  brought  Into  Norwegian  painting  a  new 
and  valuable  note.  Unfortunately  he  did  not  become  the 
factor  in  the  art  life  of  his  country  which  his  talent  and  his 
culture  fitted  him  to  be.  At  too  early  a  juncture  he  broke 
off  the  contact  with  French  art  and  fell  back  upon  Diissel- 
dorf ;  and  when  he  returned  to  Norway,  It  was  only  to  Isolate 
himself  In  Chrlstlanssand  and  his  beloved  Saetersdal  Instead 
of  making  himself  felt  In  the  artistic  awakening  In  the  capital 
during  the  eighties.  His  production,  moreover.  Is  of  ex- 
tremely uneven  quality,  and  very  seldom,  or  never,  has  he 
been  able  to  summon  his  energies  for  works  of  large  scope. 
The  really  valuable  material  Is  In  his  studies,  which  often 
are  excellent.  Isaachsen  began  as  a  pupil  of  TIdemand  In 
Diisseldorf ;  but  later  he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  became  a 
pupil  of  Couture  and  at  the  same  time  was  strongly  touched 


476 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Sastersdal  Interior,  by  Olaf  Isaachsen.     In  the  National  Gallery 

by  the  influence  of  Courbet,  The  unusual  teaching  gifts  and 
technical  knowledge  of  Couture  provided  the  best  possible 
foundation  for  Isaachsen's  art,  while  the  rugged  pictorial 
genius  of  Courbet  gave  to  it  a  breadth  and  freshness  which 
no  contemporary  Norwegian  painter  dreamed  of.  There 
are  certain  studies  by  Isaachsen  that  positively  suggest  the 
great  Delacroix's  name.  His  boldly  designed  Saetersdal 
Interior,  with  its  solid,  heavy  furniture  in  the  fashion  of  the 
sagas,  is  reproduced  here.  In  the  National  Gallery  there  is 
a  small  picture  by  him  of  a  girl,  dressed  in  grey,  beneath  a 
lilac  in  bloom,  a  painting  whose  voluminous  coloring  is  dis- 
tinctly reminiscent  of  Courbet,  During  the  hegemony  of 
naturalism  among  us  Isaachsen  receded  wholly  into  the  back- 
ground as  an  artistic  personality,  and  was  almost  forgotten. 
Later  tendencies  in  our  art  have  raised  him  once  more  to 
honor  and  distinction. 

The  one  who  most  directly  continued  Tidemand's  por- 
trayal of  country  life,  though  of  totally  different  tempera- 
ment, was  Carl  Sundt-Hansen,  who  was  born  in  Stavanger 
in  1 841  and  died  In  Saetersdalen  in  1907.    He  went  through 


MODERN  NORWE(;iAN   AK'I' 


477 


IjEifc-J 


A  Hardened  Criminal,  by  Carl  Sundt-Hanscn.     In  the  Bergen  Picture 
Gallery 

an  apprenticeship  in  Copenhagen  and  afterward  under 
Vautier  in  Diisseldorf ;  later,  however,  he  proceeded  to  Paris 
in  order  to  refine  the  handicraft  of  his  art.  The  greater 
part  of  his  time  he  spent  abroad,  first  for  many  years  in 
Stockholm,  and  subsequently  in  Copenhagen ;  but  toward  the 
close  of  his  life  homesickness  led  him  up  into  Saetersdal, 
where  he  settled  down  and  passed  the  remaining  interval, 
far  from  the  madding  crowd. 

Sundt-Hansen's  gifts  are  quite  unlike  Tidemand's.     His 
narrative  powers  are  not  so  lively  in  and  prompt  in  picturing 


478 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


.ll 


1 

1 

IHKI,      « 

p 

P"  ■ 

1 

i 

1 

[' 

^ 

^^ : 

Jf 

•l.. 

MODERN  NORWFX;iAN   ART  479 

a  situation;  nor  has  he  Ticlcmaiurs  Ni^oroiis  ahihty  in  com- 
position or  his  easily  awakened  1)  rie  sense,  iiy  way  of  com- 
pensation his  treatment  ol  humanity  pkimbs  profountler 
psychological  depths,  and  more  frc(juently  reveals  a  (juiet, 
reserxed  melancholy,  a  sobriety  without  pathos  and  without 
sentimentality.  Sundt-I  lansen's  art  depends  entirely  upon 
draughtsmanship,  directed  by  a  penetrating  perception  of 
form  and  refined  by  an  untiring,  minute  attention  to  detail. 
Since  his  chromatic  faculty  is  almost  nil,  his  finical  and 
unimpassioned  execution  may  at  times  border  upon  the  pho- 
tographic. Still  the  cool  air  of  reality  that  often  breathes 
from  his  delineations  has  an  invigorating  effect  after  the 
sultry  atelier  romanticism  of  the  Diisseldorf  group.  Sundt- 
Hansen's  best  known  and  most  popular  v/ork  is  the  little  pic- 
ture called  Under  Arrest,  which  shows  a  youthful  criminal 
In  irons  spending  his  last  hour  of  repentance  with  the  old 
prison  chaplain,  a  scene  that  moves  the  beholder  by  reason 
of  the  sombre,  low  tones  in  which  the  story  is  told.  Less 
known,  but  perhaps  even  more  Impressive  and  powerful  In 
portraying  the  human  subject,  is  another  painting  with  a 
related  theme  from  prison  life,  reproduced  here  under  the 
title  A  Hardened  Criminal,  On  the  whole,  Sundt-Hansen's 
art  Is  disposed  to  occupy  Itself  with  rather  gloomy  subjects. 
Frequently  It  Is  concerned  with  death,  and  In  several  of  the 
pictures  death  has  some  connection  with  crime.  In  the  devel- 
opment of  art  In  Norway  Sundt-Hansen's  grave  realism 
forms  a  distinct  transition  between  TIdemand's  romanticism 
and  Werenskiold's  naturalistic  portrayal  of  country  life. 

Among  landscape  painters  Ludvlg  Munthe  and  Amaldus 
Nielsen  link  the  older  era  with  the  new.  After  Dahl  and 
Gude,  Ludvlg  Munthe  Is  of  all  Norwegian  landscaplsts 
probably  the  best  known  abroad.  He  was  born  In  1841  and 
died  in  1896.  Although  he  learned  his  art  In  Diisseldorf 
and  lived  there  through  life,  this  master  establishes  a  con- 
nection In  the  course  of  Norwegian  art  between  the  anti- 
quated romantic  school  of  Diisseldorf  and  the  naturalistic 
movement  that  came  out  of  France.     Old  Dutch  masters  In 


480  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

landscape  and  newer  French  painters  taught  him  to  discern 
what  was  simple  and  unassuming  in  nature  and  to  refrain 
from  all  trickery  in  the  matter  of  subject.  Munthe,  even 
in  his  day,  saw  that  the  silhouette  of  a  naked  patch  of  under- 
brush against  an  autumnal  sky  or  a  newly  broken  path  in 
melting  snow  may  be  more  suitable  as  a  theme  than  the 
whole  array  of  natural  prospects,  peaks,  and  glaciers  that 
appeal  to  the  tourist's  eye.  For  Munthe  had  the  painter's 
vision  which  discovers  lineal  effects  in  the  plainest  motifs, 
and,  like  the  chromatic  adept  he  really  was,  he  had  the  requi- 
site skill  to  modulate  all  gradations  of  the  monotonous  greys 
and  browns.  The  damp,  cold  west  wind  of  a  December 
day,  the  cloggy  snow  along  the  beach,  the  woollen  sky  and  the 
dirty  sea,  people  pottering  about  frost-bitten  in  the  twilight 
or  hurrying  home  toward  the  red  glimmering  of  lights  in 
the  fishermen's  huts — all  these  things  are  excellently  con- 
joined to  create  a  mood  and  a  unified  picturesque  tone  In 
the  tepid,  grey  painting  entitled  Winter  Evening  on  the 
Norwegian  Coast.  This  picture,  which  was  shown  at  the 
Universal  Exposition  of  1878  and  there  received  a  first 
medal,  has  been  presented  to  the  National  Gallery  by  the 
artist  himself.  Ludvig  Munthe  had  a  decisive  influence  in 
developing  a  feeling  for  nature  In  his  highly  gifted  kinsman 
Gerhard  Munthe,  who  during  his  early  years  studied  under 
his  uncle  In  Diisseldorf. 

Another  representative  of  the  transition  from  German 
atelier  to  Norwegian  nature  is  Otto  SIndIng,  who  was  born 
at  Kongsberg  in  1842  and  died  as  a  professor  at  Mranich 
in  1909.  The  well  composed  and  effective  picture  From 
Reine  in  Lofoten,  with  its  lofty,  snow-clad  mountains,  the 
winter  fishing  fleet  on  the  grey  fjord,  and  the  little  snow- 
bound fishing  village,  Is  a  good  example  of  his  manner.  In 
this  instance,  too,  a  grey,  subdued  color  scheme  prevails. 

Still  another  transitional  figure  In  Norwegian  landscape 
art,  yet  very  different  from  those  mentioned  above,  is 
Amaldus  Nielsen.  He  was  born  at  Mandal  in  1838,  and  is 
now  living  In  Chrlstlania  as  the  dean  of  Norway's  artists. 
Nielsen  was  a  pupil  of  Gude  In  Diisseldorf  and  In  Karlsruhe; 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  AR'l^ 


481 


From  Relne  in  Lofoten,  by  Otto  Sinding.     In  the  National   Gallery 


since  he  returned  home  In  1869,  however,  and  settled  down 
in  his  native  land,  he  has  faithfully  followed  that  safe  path 
which  Professor  Dahl  in  his  day  called  the  nature  method. 
Before  painting  in  the  open  was  established  as  a  principle  by 
the  naturalists,  Amaldus  Nielsen  used  to  set  up  his  easel  in 
the  fields  and  work  with  his  eye  upon  nature  to  the  extent 
permitted  by  his  subjects;  and  his  subjects  are  the  bare 
granite  knolls,  the  small  houses  of  the  pilots,  and  the  capri- 
cious fjord  of  that  southern  region  in  which  he  was  born. 
This  son  of  a  Mandal  skipper  has  become  above  all  others 
the  painter  of  southern  Norway,  the  so-called  Southland. 
He  knows  how  to  portray  the  fjord,  now  lying  smooth  as  a 
mirror  to  the  leeward  of  sunny  islands,  now  darkening  be- 
neath a  fresh  breeze  from  the  open  sea,  now  rolling  gently 
in  morning  haze  with  a  lofty,  fair-weather  sky  overhead. 
His  best  known  picture  is  Morning  in  Ny  Hellesund,  now 
in  the  National  Gallery.  This  morning  is  so  transparently 
clear  that  vision  would  extend  for  miles  if  those  red  islands 
did  not  close  in  to  form  a  narrow  sound.  A  boat  glides 
easily  over  the  crystalline  water,  and  one  seems  to  hear  the 
splash  of  the  oars  across  the  smooth  expanse  of  the  outer 


482 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Morning  in   Ny   Hellesund,   bv  Amaldus   Nielsen.     In  the   National 
Gallery 

harbor,  while  the  morning  sun  cHmbs  above  the  red  stony 
hillsides  and  the  chill  of  night  is  borne  away  upon  cold  re- 
ceding shadows. 

It  is  noticeable  in  Amaldus  Nielsen  that  he  is  of  the  old 
camp,  that  he  has  been  a  pupil  of  Gude,  and  that  he  has  a 
studio   schooling  behind  him.       In   Fredrik   Collett  this  Is 


Mesna,  by  Fredrik  Collett.     In  the  National  Gallery 


MODI'.RN    N()k\Vi:(.l\N     \kl"  483 

no  loiiocr  iiolkcablc.  (  )l  the-  same  a^c  as  Nielsen,  COlletl, 
liimseU  a  [)upil  oi  (ludc  ami  liMiiied  in  Diisseltlorf  and  Karls- 
ruhe, was  one  of  the  iirst  ol  our  open-air  painters,  wholly 
modern,  wholly  naturalistie. 

hredrik  Collett  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1839.  He 
came  under  the  tutelage  of  (iude,  Iirst  in  Diisseldorf  and 
later  in  Karlsruhe.  He  studied  also  in  Denmark  and  visited 
Paris;  but  early  in  the  eighties  he  established  a  permanent 
residence  in  Norway.  Among  the  naturalists  of  the  eighties 
Collett  was  the  oldest,  and  his  production  in  its  continuity 
proves  that  he  belonged  to  a  period  of  transition.  Yet  the 
artistic  convictions  he  developed  In  the  course  of  years  were 
clear  and  firm.  By  persevering  energy  he  brought  his  art  up 
to  the  notable  degree  of  Independence  and  maturity  which 
It  possessed  at  his  death.  No  Norwegian  painter  has  had 
a  more  manly  profile. 

Collett  was  one  of  a  school  of  colorlsts,  but  his  chief 
strength  lay  In  the  plastic  treatment  of  landscape.  Profess- 
ing the  naturalistic  dogma  that  art  Is  a  transcript  of  nature, 
he  strove  Intensely  for  the  objective.  There  Is,  however, 
unmistakable  temperament  In  his  art,  and  with  compelling 
hand  he  retains  his  hold  upon  nature  till  It  yields  a  resultant 
of  style.  Collett's  field  of  study  Is  the  winter  of  eastern 
Norway,  with  Its  great  banks  of  snow  and  half-frozen 
streams.  He  chose  his  themes  principally  from  the  Mesna 
River  near  Llllehammer,  where  he  steadfastly  continued  his 
work  out  of  doors  up  to  a  very  great  age  and  where  also 
death  came  to  him  In  19 13.  His  Mesna  pictures  have  a 
masculine,  almost  harsh  character,  and  are  compactly  de- 
signed with  massively  modelled  contrasts  between  the  white 
expanses  of  snow  and  the  blue-black  pools  and  open  rapids. 
His  masterpiece  Is  the  monumental  composition  entitled 
Mesna,  dated  April  1891,  now  In  the  National  Gallery. 


Ill 


THE  MUNICH  SCHOOL 

FOR  the  younger  generation  of  Norwegian  painters  the 
importance  of  Diisseldorf  as  the  center  of  a  school  came 
to  an  end  when  Gude  left  that  city  in  1862.  In  its  stead 
Karlsruhe  developed  into  the  seat  of  learning,  at  any  rate  for 
the  landscape  painters,  who  flocked  about  Gude  when  two 
years  later  he  assumed  the  leading  position  at  the  Academy 
in  the  capital  city  of  Baden.  Already  toward  the  close  of 
the  sixties,  meanwhile,  the  prestige  of  Munich  in  the  art  life 
of  Germany  was  a  settled  matter;  and  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  eager  youth  in  search  of  knowledge — young  Norwe- 
gians among  them — streamed  toward  Piloty's  and  Diez's 
studios.  For  the  second  time  in  a  century  Munich  had  its 
period  of  artistic  efflorescence.  That  Munich  would  give 
fresher  and  more  vigorous  stimulus  than  Diisseldorf  was 
only  natural.  The  larger  aspect  of  affairs,  the  more  abun- 
dant art  life  in  which  the  ranks  of  the  painters  were  recruited 
from  the  most  various  elements  in  all  corners  of  the  earth, 
and  representing  the  greatest  differences  in  artistic  tend- 
encies; furthermore,  the  prominent  individual  artists  and 
teachers  in  the  city  itself,  the  voluminous  collections  of  older 
art  in  the  Pinakothek,  and  the  Schack  Gallery  with  its  pic- 
tures by  Schwind  and  Feuerbach  and  its  early  Bocklins; 
and,  finally,  the  large  international  exhibitions  of  modern  art 
in  1869  and  1879 — all  these  things  in  combination  neces- 
sarily offered  facilities  for  development  and  served  to  keep 
men's  talents  in  a  state  of  tension. 

Among  the  Norwegian  artists  who   went  during  these 
years  to  Munich  and  received  their  first  training  there  may 

484 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  485 

be  mentioned  the  brothers  Gronvold,  Olav  Rusti,  Oscar 
Wergeland,  and  Ekenaes.  They  were  the  vanguard.  Later 
came  Otto  Sinding,  Eilif  Peterssen,  and  Hans  Heyerdahl, 
Erik  Werenskiold  and  Gerhard  Munthe,  Harriet  Backer 
and  Kitty  Kielland,  Jacob  (ihiersen  and  Theodor  Kittelsen; 
further,  Karl  Uchermann,  Elisabeth  Sinding,  and  Asta  Nor- 
regaard.  Still  later  appeared  representatives  of  a  new  gen- 
eration, namely  Fredrik  Kolsto,  Sven  Jorgensen,  Jacob 
Somme,  and  Jacob  Bratland.  The  greater  number  of  those 
named  became  pupils  of  Lofftz.  To  these  young  painters, 
who  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  faced  the  prospect  of  working 
in  a  land  such  as  Norway,  where  they  would  have  to  recon- 
cile themselves  to  the  absolute  lack  of  good  examples  of 
older  art,  the  opportunities  for  study  In  the  Pinakothek  at 
Munich  were  of  Inestimable  value.  The  culture  and  refine- 
ment of  taste  which  were  thus  added  to  their  native  endow- 
ments during  these  impressionable  years  gave  that  inward 
security  which  culture  Is  capable  of  providing  against  seasons 
of  ferment  and  strife. 

Meanwhile  the  air  in  Munich  was  full  of  disquieting 
vibrations.  Without  doubt  such  of  the  Norwegian  pupils 
at  the  Academy  as  thought  at  all  deeply,  Werenskiold  espe- 
cially, were  conscious  of  something  untenable  at  the  bottom 
of  the  dominating  academic  tendencies.  Routine  was  fastening 
Its  grip  round  about  them  and  even  beginning  to  seize  upon 
their  own  circle.  Not  a  few  seem  to  have  experienced  a  stifling 
sensation  and  to  have  realized  the  desirability  of  getting 
away.  Nevertheless,  it  was  not  till  1878  that  the  general 
migration  commenced.  Eilif  Peterssen  returned  to  Norway 
and  remained  at  home  one  winter,  whereupon  he  went  to 
Rome  and  there  made  his  first  full  surrender  to  realism. 
Heyerdahl  hastened  to  Paris,  where  he  scored  a  success  at 
the  Universal  Exposition  with  his  picture,  Adam  and  Eve. 
Harriet  Backer  also  removed  to  Paris.  In  July,  1879,  the 
International  Art  Exhibition  was  opened  in  Munich.  The 
productions  of  the  Frenchmen  had  the  greatest  effect  on  the 
entire  world  of  art  In  Munich.  The  French  made  such  an 
impression  on  Erik  Werenskiold  that  he  sent  out  the  winged 


486 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


word  that  the  day  of  Munich  was  past.  The  countersign  ot 
naturalism  had,  so  to  say,  been  floating  in  mid-air.  It  was 
necessary  only  that  some  one  should  speak  it.  The  French 
group  at  the  Exhibition  did  speak  it;  and  they  were  strongly 
seconded  by  men  like  Menzel  and  Liebermann. 

In  the  combative  generation  of  painters  that  follows, 
Eilif  Peterssen  and  Hans  Heyerdahl  have  a  somewhat 
peculiar  place.  Both  are  in  a  way  transitional  figures,  im- 
pressionable natures  who  have  been  under  the  influence  of 
two  totally  distinct  artistic  tendencies,  and  therefore  show  a 
sort  of  dual  quality  in  their  production. 

Eilif  Peterssen  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1852.  In  the 
autumn  of  1873  he  went  to  Munich  to  take  up  historical 
painting  under  Diez.  He  became  at  once  a  so-called  master- 
pupil,  and  with  the  guidance  of  Diez  painted  in  1  874  his  first 
picture.  The  Death  of  Korfitz  Ulfeldt,  which  is  now  in  New- 
castle. Shortly  afterward  he  left  the  Academy,  rented  a 
studio  of  his  own,  and  attacked  his  large  work.  Christian  II 
Signing  the  Death  Sentence  of  Torben  Oxe,  which  was  fin- 
ished in  1876  and  purchased  for  the  gallery  of  the  city  of 


1  ^m 

^■^i^H    ^Kil^' 

'Tl^^^^^^K^BBKk           '^S^^^^M 

tr -^"Su'x  '  ^^^^3^,'^M 

»^S'i      -^^^^PW^^^-^''  ^fc 

km 

Christian  II  Signing  the  Death  Sentence  of  Torben  Oxe,  by  Eilif 
Peterssen.     In  the  Museum  at  Breslau 


M()1)I:RN   N()K\VI-:(.IAN    AKI  487 

Bi-csl;ui,  whcM-c  it  still  remains.  Christian  II  was  a  ^rcat 
achievement  on  the  part  of  an  artist  only  twenty-three  years 
of  age;  at  one  stroke  he  gained  a  reputation  in  Munich  and 
thr()ui2;hout  (ierniany.  In  a  psychologically  suhtle  portrait  of 
Christian  II  by  an  old  Dutch  painter,  in  the  Cojienhagen  gal- 
lery, Peterssen  found  his  point  of  departure  for  the  delinea- 
tion of  the  king.  High-strung  and  sensitive,  passionate  in 
feeling  and  yet  cold  in  revenge,  he  sits  with  the  fatal  decree 
before  him,  deaf  and  dumb  to  assailing  importunities.  He 
seems  totally  lost  in  memories  of  the  young  girl  whom  he 
loved  and  whom  merciless  death  tore  from  his  side.  The 
queen  and  the  ladies  in  waiting  are  interceding  on  behalf  of 
the  distinguished  noble  who  has  been  selected  as  a  sacrifice; 
on  their  knees  they  implore  mercy  for  the  innocent  victim; 
the  queen  beseeches  the  king  with  caresses.  From  the  other 
side,  meanwhile,  his  evil  genius,  the  crafty  and  vindictive 
Didrik  Slaghaek,  presses  forward  and  silently  holds  out  a 
pen  for  the  signature.  The  subject  is  intensely  dramatic, 
almost  too  dramatic,  and  treated  with  histrionic  explicitness 
and  suspense.  The  composition  is  well  handled,  and  the 
execution  betrays  the  capacity  of  the  true  painter. 

Even  at  this  youthful  period  Ellif  Peterssen  came  under 
the  influence,  in  the  old  Munich  Pinakothek,  of  earlier  art, 
which  he  studied  and  copied  with  admiring  assiduity.  Here 
he  laid  the  foundation  for  his  solid  technical  Insight  and 
developed  his  taste.  Especially  was  he  attracted  by  the 
sonorous  colors  of  the  Venetians.  He  adapted  his  own 
coloring  to  accord  with  Titian  and  his  contemporaries,  while 
he  improved  his  sense  of  form  particularly  by  contact  with 
Holbein. 

In  may  respects  this  sojourn  In  Munich  constituted  a  bril- 
liant phase  of  Peterssen's  career.  He  soon  made  a  name  for 
himself  both  among  the  artists  and  with  the  public,  sold  all 
his  pictures  off  the  easel  at  high  prices,  received  medals  wher- 
ever he  exhibited,  and  In  sum  had  made  good  progress 
toward  European  reputation  already  In  his  twenties.  Nev- 
ertheless, in  1879  he  permanently  forsook  Munich.  He  had 
taken  alarm  at  his  experiences  there.     In  a  letter  he  explains 


488  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

that  things  were  becoming  too  easy  for  him,  that  technique 
and  the  choice  of  pigments  suggested  themselves  with  dis- 
quieting facility,  and  that  he  had  before  his  eyes  too  many 
examples  of  men  with  respectable  talents  who  had  gone 
under,  lost  their  personalities,  and  succumbed  to  glittering 
temptations,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  ready-made 
formula  of  commercialized  art. 

On  reviewing  what  Eilif  Peterssen  painted  during  this 
period,  as,  for  instance,  the  beautiful  portrait  of  Harriet 
Backer  or  the  portrait  in  the  National  Gallery  of  the  woman 
with  the  lovely  hands,  Fru  Andrea  Kleen,  nee  Gram,  one 
finds  nothing  to  awake  misgivings.  The  suggestion  of  the 
tone  of  the  old  masters  which  graces  these  pictures  by  no 
means  carries  the  stamp  of  shallow  imitation.  Working  in 
a  spirit  of  veneration  for  the  old  masters,  the  painter  has 
seen  and  caught  the  quality  of  style  in  his  models  and  thus 
has  given  to  these  portraits  a  certain  distinction  and  exqui- 
siteness  which  otherwise  is  rare  in  Norwegian  art. 

Strangely  enough,  it  was  on  the  classical  soil  of  Italy  that 
Eilif  Peterssen  developed  into  a  realist  in  the  modern  sense 
and  into  an  open-air  painter.  While  all  his  comrades  were 
assembled  in  Paris,  he  was  sunning  himself  in  Italy  and  there 
doing  some  of  his  best  work.  To  this  early  Mediterranean 
sojourn  we  owe  the  painting,  replete  with  figures  and  care- 
fully executed  throughout,  of  Italian  peasants  taking  their 
siesta  at  an  inn,  painted  at  Sora  in  1880,  and  the  large  street 
scene  from  the  Piazza  Montanara,  a  motley  crowd  in  a 
Roman  square,  done  in  1882.  At  Rome,  in  188 1,  Peterssen 
finished  in  addition  the  large  altar-piece  for  the  Jakobskirke 
in  Christiania,  called  the  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  prob- 
ably his  most  significant  performance.  To  it  contribute  in  an 
impressive  way  a  powerful  grasp  of  reality,  a  persevering 
study  of  models,  and  vital  influences  from  the  older  art  of 
the  galleries. 

When  Eilif  Peterssen  returned  to  Christiania  in  1883  it 
was  with  the  fixed  purpose  of  remaining  in  Norway.  During 
the  fiery  strife  which  was  going  on  at  that  tim.e  between  the 
artists  on  the  one  side  and  the  reactionary  directors  of  Kunst- 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ARI' 


489 


Piazza  Montanara,  by  Eilif  Peterssen.    Privately  owned  in  Fredriks- 
hald 


foreningen  together  with  a  rather  uncomprehending  pubhc 
on  the  other,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Peterssen  to  act  as  a  medi- 
ator between  the  parties.  His  early  maturity,  the  nature 
of  his  gifts,  his  reputation  abroad,  and  his  gracious  person- 
ality pointed  him  out,  among  the  entire  body  of  artists,  for 
universal  confidence  and  therefore  led  to  his  being  selected 


490 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


I 


Portrait    of    the    Poet   Arne    Garborg,    by    Eilif    Peterssen.     In    the 
National  Gallery 

when  negotiations  were  on  foot  or  when  threatening  con- 
flicts were  to  be  averted.  As  a  member  of  juries  and  of  a 
variety  of  committees,  of  the  directorate  of  the  National 
Gallery,  and  of  the  representative  committee  of  the  artists, 
Eilif  Peterssen  has  left  a  great  impression  on  the  public 
phases  of  our  art  life,  next  to  Werenskiold  perhaps  the 
greatest.  Eilif  Peterssen  executed  his  masterpiece  in  por- 
traiture when  he  painted  Arne  Garborg  in  1884.     The  very 


MODERN  NORWIXilAN   ART  491 

arrangement  of  the  picture,  the  natural  and  thoughtful  pose 
of  the  sitter  is  captivating;  and  one  does  not  easily  forget  the 
large,  sorrowful  eyes,  like  the  eyes  of  a  hart,  which  gaze  out 
from  that  haggard  face. 

Hans  Heyerdahl,  who  was  horn  in  1857,  came  as  a  youth 
of  seventeen  to  Munich  and  there  studied  under  Linden- 
schmidt.  This  conscientious  and  high-minded  teacher  soon 
appreciated  his  brilliant  gifts  and  turned  them  in  the  right 
direction.  By  serious  study  and  diligent  practice  the  young 
pupil  in  a  short  time  became  an  excellent  draughtsman,  espe- 
cially in  portraiture,  with  an  animated  sense  for  details  of 
form,  in  the  spirit  of  Holbein.  In  Munich  Eilif  Peterssen 
and  Hans  Heyerdahl,  his  junior  by  five  years,  soon  grew  to 
be  close  comrades.  Later  in  life,  to  be  sure,  they  were 
widely  separated,  but  in  the  history  of  art  the  two  will  always 
occupy  places  near  each  other.  Men  of  talent  both,  mature 
at  an  early  age,  colorists  and  worshippers  of  beauty,  easily 
Influenced  and  open-minded,  particularly  as  regards  older 
art,  gifted  with  lightness  of  touch  and  ambitious  for  tech- 
nical mastery,  they  soon  took  a  position  In  Munich  as  equals 
and  side  by  side. 

After  three  years  of  study  It  was  possible  for  Heyerdahl 
In  1878  to  send  from  Munich  to  the  Universal  Exposition  In 
Paris  a  large  picture  which  has  continued  to  rank  as  one  of 
the  principal  works  of  the  artist  and,  for  that  matter,  as 
one  of  the  ripest  and  most  remarkable  achievements  In 
Norwegian  painting  The  composition  presents  Adam  and 
Eve  Being  Driven  Forth  from  Paradise,  two  nude  figures 
seen  against  a  background  of  threatening  darkness.  They 
are  beautifully  painted.  Eve  especially.  In  soft  golden  flesh 
tints.  The  piece,  however.  Is  no  mere  technical  study.  It 
carries  Its  own  challenging  message,  expressed  In  the  figure 
of  Adam,  a  very  young  lad,  hardly  more  than  a  child,  with  a 
fine  head  of  dark  hair.  They  have  sinned,  those  two;  but 
the  glance  he  directs  back  toward  the  lowering  heavens 
burns  with  rage,  and  his  hands  are  clenched  In  Impotent  de- 
fiance of  that  Providence  which  thrusts  Its  own  children 
without  the  gates  of  the  garden  of  bliss.     There  Is  youthful 


492 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


K^^W^ 


Adam  and  Eve  Being  Driven  Forth  from  Paradise,  by  Hans  Heyerdal 
Privately  owned  in  Paris 


revolt  in  this  work  by  a  man  of  twenty.  The  picture 
naturally  created  the  greatest  sensation,  both  among  artists 
and  with  the  public,  received  a  prize,  and  was  at  once  sold 


MODl^^N    NOkVVJ'X.lAN   ART 


493 


The  Letter,  by  Hans  Heyerdahl.     In  the  Art  Society  at  Kristianssand 

to  a  Greek  art  collector  in  Paris.  Not  a  bad  success  for  an 
academy  pupil!  The  young  master  lost  no  time  whatever 
in  quitting  the  Academy  and  hastening  to  Paris. 

Other  works  from  Heyerdahl's  Munich  period,  too,  such 
as  the  Penitent  Magdalene  in  Rasmus  Meyer's  collection, 
and  portraits  of  Eilif  Peterssen  and  of  Skredsvig  from  the 
year  1878,  now  in  the  National  Gallery,  will  remain  as  little 
masterpieces  from  the  hand  of  a  youthful  genius.  Imme- 
diately after  his  arrival  in  Paris  he  painted  his  Italian  Girl, 


494 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


with  Its  fine  silver  tone  reminding  of  Corot,  and  also  the 
austere  and  delicate  full-face  portrait  of  Laura  Gundersen, 
executed  with  untiring  attention  to  modeling,  after  the 
manner  of  Holbein. 

In   general,    the    intense    study   of   the   old   masters   and 
their  technique  which  Heyerdahl  prosecuted  in  youth  deter- 
mined his  develop- 
ment and  has  left 
itsmarksupon 
his  production 
throughout.  When 
he  found  himself  in 
Paris,  the  focus  of 
modern  art,  he  was 
so   far   from  cool- 
ing in  his  passion 
for  the  old  masters 
that,    on    the    con- 
trary,    he     settled 
down  in  the  Lou- 
vre to  copy  a  num- 
ber of  them.     His 
copies    of    Bellini, 
Raphael,      Rem- 
brandt, and  Ribera 
are  among  the  best 
works  of  this  kind 
in  our  time, 
Heyerdahl's  greatest  and  most  significant  performance 
from  the  early  eighties  was  nevertheless  the  large  figure 
composition  which  he  painted  In  Norway  and  exhibited  at 
the  Salon  of  1882  under  the  title  The  Dying  Child,     The 
story  Is  simple  and  sincere,  and  the  presentation  has  eminent 
pictorial  qualities.     The  cold  daylight  upon  the  half-clothed 
figure  of  the  mother  with  her  disheveled  hair  and  despair- 
ing face  is  made  to  stand  out  in  masterly  fashion  against 
the  twilight  of  the  room.  In  which  beneath  the  rays  of  the 
night  lamp  the  doctor  bends  over  the  cradle  listening  to  the 


Portrait  of  the  Actress  Laura  Gundersen,  by 
Hans   Heyerdahl.     In   the   National    Gallery 


MODI'lkN    N()K\Vi;(,Iy\N   ART  495 

faint  brcathiiifj;  of  the  cliild.  With  this  paint iii}^;  I  Icycr- 
dahl's  fortune  was  assured.  The  |)icture  was  bought  by 
the  Trench  Government,  and  the  artist  received  a  Grand 
Prix  dc  Florence  which  had  been  oHered  by  the  periodical, 
VArt. 

Heyerdahl's  studies  in  Italy  covered  a  span  from  1882  till 
1884.  In  Florence,  where  he  diligently  continued  his  tech- 
nical exercises  upon  the  old  masters,  he  formed  an  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  Bocklin.  This  association  with  the 
German  romanticist  came  to  have  a  considerable  influence  on 
the  further  development  of  Heyerdahl,  not  wholly  to  his  ad- 
vantage. Through  it  he  was  to  a  certain  extent  led  away 
from  that  path  into  which  his  PVench  training  had  carried 
him,  and  led  Into  a  round  of  primitive  Germanic  myth- 
ological subjects  for  the  treatment  of  which  his  intelligence 
did  not  suffice  and  his  individuality  could  ill  adapt  itself. 
Meanwhile,  before  these  Ideas  gained  the  upper  hand  he 
had  experienced  at  home  in  Norway,  in  1885  and  the  im- 
mediately following  years,  a  period  of  flourishing  produc- 
tivity during  which  portraits,  landscapes,  and  nudes  flow 
from  his  brush,  and  during  which  he  asserts  himself  In 
general  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  painters  in  the  history 
of  Norwegian  art. 

In  winter  he  executed  portraits  in  Chrlstlania,  and  In  sum- 
mer landscapes  with  figures  and  nudes  at  Aasgaardsstrand. 
To  this  happy  season  belongs  the  double  portrait,  now  In 
the  National  Gallery,  arranged  in  the  Venetian  manner: 
The  Two  Sisters,  the  ruddy  and  the  blond  beauty  of  the 
fishing  village.  In  the  middle  eighties  appeared  also  his  best 
studies  in  the  nude.  He  has  painted  bathing  boys  and  girls, 
often  seen  against  a  background  of  salt  blue  sea.  In  which 
there  Is  a  golden  amber  tone  and  a  luscious  sweetness  In 
form  that  might  tempt  one  to  call  Heyerdahl  the  Renoir  of 
the  North. 

Unfortunately  Heyerdahl's  art  has  not  always  had  the 
direct  Inspiration  from  nature  which  marks  these  pictures. 
He  has  also  turned  out  casual  things,  fleeting  landscape 
moods  and  cloying  studies  of  heads,  which  properly  belong 


496  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

in  family  magazines.  Particularly  in  the  case  of  commis- 
sions for  portraits,  where  the  sitters  have  not  sufficiently 
interested  him,  he  has  succumbed  to  the  temptation  to  lay  a 
flattering  unction  upon  his  all  too  supple  brush.  The 
good  things  and  the  excellent,  however,  which  the  eye  of  a 
refined  painter  who  loved  beauty  has  caught  for  us  to  look 
upon  will  in  themselves  be  enough  to  maintain  for  him  a 
long  time  that  honored  place  in  the  history  of  our  art  which 
is  rightfully  his.  It  must  also  be  reckoned  to  Heyerdahl's 
credit  as  an  artist  that  he  gave  fruitful  stimulus  to  the  genius 
of  Edvard  Munch.     Heyerdahl  died  in  19 13. 


IV 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  FRENCH  INFLUENCE 


THAT  period  In  the  history  of  Norwegian  art  which 
has  been  discussed  so  far  was  one  in  which  Norwegian 
painters  received  their  training  in  Germany  and  were 
dependent  upon  German  art.  This  connection  was  broken, 
little  by  little,  about  the  time  when  the  Universal  Exposition 
of  1878  in  Paris  and  the  subsequent  exposition  in  Munich 
demonstrated  conclusively  the  preeminence  of  French  art. 
With  this  turn  of  events  there  begins  a  new  phase  of  the  de- 
velopment of  art  in  Norway,  when  Impressions  from  France 
outweigh  those  from  Germany,  when  our  young  artists  in 
a  body  go  to  Paris  to  see  and  learn,  and  afterward  come 
back  to  live  and  work  In  their  native  land.  The  period  of 
emigration  Is  at  an  end,  and  the  wholly  national  period  In 
our  art  history  begins.  Herewith  also  romanticism  Is  at  an 
end,  and  naturalism  begins.  Norwegian  painting  from  this 
time  forth  Is  no  longer  under  the  sign  of  German  neo-ro- 
mantlclsm  but  under  the  sign  of  French  naturalism.  This 
was  the  conception  of  art  that  became  dominant  also  among 
us  in  the  eighties  as  soon  as  It  had  been  adapted  to  nature 
In  Norway  and  had  been  fashioned  to  accord  with  the  Nor- 
wegian temperament. 

It  must  be  allowed  that  It  was  not  always  the  great  and 
epoch-making  French  artists  who  had  the  most  direct  in- 
fluence on  our  young  Norwegian  painters,  who  In  the  closing 
years  of  the  seventies  and  on  Into  the  eighties,  thronged  to 
Paris.  As  teachers  they  had  the  more  subordinate  celebrities 
who  were  attached  to  the  art  schools,  realists  like  Bonnat, 

497 


498  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Roll,  Cormon,  or  even  academicians  of  the  commonplace 
type  of  Bouguereau.  Still  the  art  traditions  and  the  great 
technical  eminence  of  France  did  not  fail  to  assert  them- 
selves. It  will  perhaps  be  regarded  as  surprising  even  to-day 
that  it  was  a  grey  realist  like  Bastien-Lepage  whom  the 
young  Norsemen  admired  particularly,  and  that  corypheuses 
of  the  Salon  like  Carolus  Durand,  Roll,  and  Cazin  counted 
votaries  among  them  side  by  side  with  or  even  before  Manet, 
Renoir,  and  the  impressionists.  One  must,  however,  take 
into  account  the  inexperience  of  the  youthful  painters,  their 
German  prepossessions,  and  as  well  the  prejudice  with  which 
even  official  France  received  its  own  true  pioneers  in  art. 
Daumier's  painting  was  still  unknown;  the  Inspired  talent 
of  Delacroix  was  by  reason  of  its  romantic  subject  matter 
precluded  from  the  interest  of  the  juvenile  naturalists; 
Manet  was  just  In  process  of  breaking  his  own  path,  and 
Renoir  was  too  much  of  a  Frenchman  for  the  Northern 
students  or  else  a  total  stranger  to  them.  None  the  less, 
the  seeds  scattered  by  genius  were  budding  all  about  them 
or  flying  like  motes  through  the  air.  Deep  is  the  soil  of 
culture  in  France  and  plentiful  the  increase.  And  art  life 
in  Paris  had  seasonable  weather  for  its  thriving  during  those 
good  years. 

One  French  artist  there  was,  nevertheless,  who  had  a 
direct  influence  upon  the  young  Norwegians  through  the 
range  of  his  subjects,  his  straightforward  style,  and  his 
great  heart — the  painter  of  peasants,  Millet.  Here  was  a 
delineation  of  the  life  of  the  people  and  an  art  of  the 
peasantry  totally  different  from  Tidemand's  Sunday  idylls. 
Millet's  achievement  was  that  of  seeing  men  at  their  work 
and  in  contact  with  the  soil  from  which  they  sprang.  There- 
by a  suggestion  of  the  eternal  came  Into  art  which  was  not 
there  before.  It  was  not  the  peasant  for  his  own  sake  and 
his  rural  occupations  that  this  master  sought  to  portray, 
though  he  depicted  all  of  these  occupations — the  labors  of 
the  fields  and  of  the  woods,  the  life  of  herdsmen,  tillage 
and  housework — but  he  did  seek  to  portray  man  in  concord 
with  his  toil,  as  he  expresses  It  himself.     Herein  Millet  saw 


MODI'kN    NOkWI'XilAN    AR'I"  490 

1 

all  l)(.'aut\.      IkmuIv,  he  writes  (o  his  Irieiul  Scnsicr,  has  not 

its  scat   ill  the   Icaturcs;  it   is  rcllctleil    I  rom   the   li^iirc  as   a 

whole,  111  \\liats()c\  cr  accords  with  a  man's  tasks. 

The  laiulscape  art  of  Corot  also  made  an  immediate  im- 
pression on  the  young  Northern  students,  h.)t!i  Norwegians 
and  Sweiles.  7'hose  blonde,  cool  landscapes,  wrapped  as  it 
were  in  siNer  tissue,  with  their  dewy  greenswards  and  those 
ancient  willows  bending  o\er  a  pearl-grey  lake  and  silhouet- 
ting themselves  darkly  and  softly  upon  the  atmosphere! 
What  the  youthful  strangers  saw  and  admired  in  Corot, 
besides  the  poetic  content,  was  the  fine  sense  of  values  with 
which  the  colors  are  toned  down  and  blended  into  harmony. 
Corot  was  the  first  conscious  painter  of  atmosphere  in 
modern  art;  he  beheld  objects  immersed  in  the  atmospheric 
sea.  This  faculty  made  his  palette  what  it  was,  with  its 
milky,  blue-green  tints  and  its  unending  scale  of  greys.  As  a 
draughtsman  also  he  was  a  forerunner  of  impressionism  in 
his  grasp  of  the  totality  of  mass  and  tone. 

As  a  counter-balance  against  these  late  scions  of  roman- 
ticism there  is  Courbet,  the  full-blooded  peasant  genius  with 
the  indomitable  desire  to  press  nature  herself  between  his 
arms,  as  Zola  puts  it.  He  is  a  naturalist,  a  son  of  the  new  era, 
with  the  child's  positive  conviction  that  it  is  indeed  reality 
which  presents  itself  to  our  senses.  All  bounds  between 
good  and  evil,  between  the  hideous  and  the  beautiful,  be- 
tween noble  things  and  ignoble,  were  dissipated  before  the 
unveiled  eye  of  this  painter,  before  his  ravenous  nature,  so 
capacious  of  enjoyment  that,  as  it  has  been  phrased,  he  felt 
himself  drawn  with  all  his  flesh  toward  the  material  world 
surrounding  him. 

Finally  there  is  Manet,  the  first  truly  modern  painter, 
who  brilliantly  sums  up  all  earlier  approaches  and  technical 
advances,  from  the  Venetians  and  Velazquez  to  Goya  and 
Courbet,  and  so  develops  an  art  in  which  material  and  spirit, 
stroke  and  tone  are  joined  in  a  unity  of  impression  found  in 
no  other, 

Manet  has  been  called  the  father  of  impressionism;  un- 


500  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

justly  so,  if  one  thinks  of  the  impressionistic  color-decom- 
posing technique  in  itself;  justly  so,  if  by  impressionism  one 
means  a  peculiar  manner  of  visualizing,  by  hasty  survey, 
with  a  special  feeling  for  the  total  result,  for  light  effects,  for 
action — in  a  word,  for  the  momentary  singleness  of  the  im- 
pact upon  the  sight. 

Manet  was  the  first  modern  painter  also  in  the  sense  that 
he  was  the  first  wholly  to  devote  himself  to  modern  themes. 
Allegory,  history,  myth  moved  him  not  at  all.  Paris,  the 
mundane  career  of  Parisians  and  Parisiennes,  on  the  street, 
in  cafe  or  cabaret,  and  at  the  opera  ball,  is  the  sole  passion 
of  his  art.  The  fever  and  restlessness  of  the  great  city  in- 
cite him;  he  loves  life  when  its  pulses  beat  high.  The  race 
course,  the  bar,  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  the  boudoir  consti- 
tute his  field  of  study.  He  paints  beautiful  and  elegant 
Parisiennes — a  multitude  of  them.  And  on  fine  spring  days, 
when  the  Seine  lies  blue  and  radiant,  with  the  boats  of  the 
rowing-club  beneath  the  arched  bridges,  he  is  to  be  dis- 
covered at  Meudon  and  Argenteuil. 

More  and  more  it  grew  to  be  Manet's  governing  impulse 
to  paint  life  in  strong  colors  and  in  the  full  light  of  the  sun. 
Plein-air  became  the  new  watchword  of  art.  Even  at  this 
day  there  lingers  a  glory  of  the  joy  of  life  about  these  pic- 
tures that  are  given  over  to  sunshine  and  the  splendor  of 
summer,  to  dazzling  blue  water  and  white  sails,  to  youth, 
bright  clothing,  and  flowers. 

Manet's  work  underwent  a  continuously  ascending  devel- 
opment, until  an  implacable  disease  struck  down  his  prodigal 
strength  just  as  it  was  unfolding  itself  most  completely,  and 
so  broke  off  the  most  brilliant  and  epochal  production  that 
modern  painting  is  able  to  show.  One  day  in  the  spring  of 
1883  Edouard  Manet  died. 

No  single  painter  was  prepared  to  take  over  Manet's  in- 
heritance on  equal  terms.  Yet  about  him  had  gathered 
closely  a  small  group  of  very  capable  artists  and  steadfast 
comrades,  who  in  serried  ranks  pushed  forward  the  battle 
lines:  Monet,  Pissarro,  Sisley,  Renoir,  and  others — the  im- 
pressionists, as  they  were  at  first  scornfully  called. 


MODERN   NORVVrX.IAN   ART  501 

Among  the  impressionistic  painters  Claude  Monet  takes 
the  leading  position.  He  was  the  protagonist  who,  conscious 
of  his  purpose,  with  undeviating  consistency  carried  the  prin- 
ciples of  open-air  painting  farther  and  developed  the  impres- 
sionistic method.  Even  in  youth  the  goal  was  plain  to 
Monet,  namely,  to  convey  light  and  atmosphere  upon  the 
canvas.  To  the  realization  of  this  idea  he  devoted  his  hrush 
and  indeed  his  life.  In  order  to  capture  light  he  gave  up 
figure  painting,  in  which  he  had  early  shown  great  talent, 
fled  the  studio,  and  set  up  his  easel  out  of  doors.  In  order 
to  master  light  he  made  himself  a  chemist  and  a  physicist, 
studied  the  physics  of  color,  and  systematized  the  result 
of  his  experiences  in  the  technique  of  color  division. 

As  is  well  known,  the  method  consists  in  a  mechanical 
collocation  upon  the  canvas  of  small  particles  of  the  pure 
pigments  instead  of  a  chemical  mixing  of  them  upon  the 
palette.  The  fusing  into  tone  takes  place  on  the  retina  of 
the  observer's  eye  at  a  proper  distance.  The  gain  lies 
therein  that  the  colors  lose  nothing  in  power  through  being 
blended,  but  speak  with  undiminished  force  from  the  canvas. 
Moreover,  since  black  and  all  heavy,  dark  tones  are  pro- 
scribed from  the  palette,  which  retains,  besides  white,  only 
the  three  primary  colors,  red,  blue,  and  yellow,  the  paintings 
of  the  Impressionists  attained  a  force  of  light  and  a  vigor 
which  at  the  time  of  their  appearance  had  a  positively  daz- 
zling effect. 

By  means  of  this  technique  Claude  Monet  and  his  asso- 
ciates pictured  Paris  and  the  smiling  reaches  of  the  Seine  or 
the  Olse,  burgeoning  landscapes  In  summer  green,  and  flow- 
ing water.  They  portrayed  the  sea  dashing  against  the 
rocks  at  Etretat  or  expanding  along  the  Mediterranean 
coast.  Monet  himself  has  also  painted  several  series  of  pic- 
tures from  the  foggy  city  on  the  Thames,  the  tulip  markets 
of  Haarlem,  and  the  cathedral  at  Rouen.  Through  It  all, 
however,  he  has  painted  but  one  thing,  light;  light  In  Its 
unceasing  variations  through  the  atmospheric  medium  in 
changing  weather  and  In  the  alternating  phases  of  day  and 
night. 


502  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

As  full-blooded  naturalists  and  sworn  adherents  of  open 
air  painting  the  young  Norwegians  returned  home  from 
Paris  with  the  passing  of  the  early  eighties.  About  the  year 
1883  nearly  all  the  artistic  capacities  that  our  country  could 
muster  were  assembled  in  Norway's  capital,  and  assembled 
with  the  intention  of  remaining  there.  Now  they  were  con- 
fronted with  the  task  of  taking  up  the  cudgels  for  their  new 
persuasions  and  of  shaping  a  new  art  which  should  be  wholly 
Norwegian.  This  period  of  naturalism  in  the  eighties 
may  well  be  called  the  golden  age  of  Norwegian  art.  It 
was  strongly  endowed  with  talent,  and  it  was  entirely 
national. 

A  large  collection  of  the  pictures  of  that  time,  as  it  is  to 
be  found,  for  instance,  in  the  excellently  representative  can- 
vases in  our  National  Gallery,  gives  an  impression  of  bright 
and  powerful  colors,  of  the  brilliance  of  sun  and  snow  and 
open  air,  of  space  and  distance,  of  actuality;  in  short,  it 
creates  a  vivid  illusion.  Furtherm.ore,  one  notices  that  there 
are  comparatively  few  landscapes,  that  they  are  over- 
matched by  figure  compositions,  and  that  several  of  these 
are  of  great  scope  and  show  figures  of  life-size,  taken  from 
everyday  walks,  and  almost  insistently  veracious.  The  faces 
of  well  known  men  shine  out  upon  us  from  these  portraits — 
poets,  artists,  composers  whose  names  and  works  live  and 
hold  sway  over  us.  There  is  not  a  picture  here  whose  sub- 
ject is  drawn  from  history,  from  poetry,  or  in  any  way 
from  the  world  of  the  imagination.  Here  is  no  dream,  no 
poem,  no  nocturnal  vision,  no  twilight  revery,  but  sunshine 
and  again  sunshine,  or  cold,  merciless  daylight  beneath  a 
Northern  sky. 

Only  by  very  rare  exception  do  we  meet  with  a  foreign 
theme.  We  go  with  the  painters  up  through  the  valleys  and 
with  them  visit  actual  Norwegian  farmers,  farmers  who  are 
working  or  resting  from  their  labors,  farmers  who  are  eat- 
ing their  bread  or  are  about  to  eat  it,  farmers  with  tough, 
capable  fists  and  weatherbeaten  physiognomies.  We  drop 
in  on  fishermen  and  pilots.  We  step  into  the  living-rooms 
of  common  people  In  the  cities,  we  surprise  an  artisan's  little 


MODl-lRN   N()K\Vi:(.IAN   AKI"  503 

family  hall-ilrcsscii  about  the  hrcaklast  tabic  on  a  winter 
morning,  or  wc  present  ourseK  es  on  a  Sunday  in  the  parh)!" 
at  a  festivity  incident  to  the  ceremony  ol  conlir, nation,  where 
rchitix'es  and  friends  are  assembled  and  an  old  laniiliar  ol 
the  house  raises  his  glass  in  honor  ot  the  son  newly  arri\ed 
at  grown-up  dignity.  We  walk  among  the  proletariat  of 
the  capital  and  carry  away  somber  impressions  of  enforced 
idleness,  of  misery,  of  the  bitter  struggle  for  bread,  of  sick- 
ness and  privation.  Finally,  we  even  pass  within  the  walls 
of  the  police  station  and  stand  face  to  face  with  the  curse 
of  pauperism  and  the  social  infamy.  Vice  and  brazenness 
have  the  same  opportunity  to  address  us  through  this  demo- 
cratic art  as  innocence  and  uprightness;  the  hideous  has 
equal  rights  with  the  beautiful. 

Furthermore,  if  one  looks  not  merely  at  the  subjects  but 
also  at  the  handling  of  these  pictures,  one  finds  a  still  greater 
divergence  from  the  art  of  an  older  generation.  Almost 
universally  these  paintings  are  executed  with  the  broad 
brush.  The  color  is  spread  upon  the  canvas  thick  and  juicy, 
often  with  the  living  impress  of  the  temperamental  hand  that 
applied  it.  Moreover,  although  the  brown  and  black 
shadow-tones  which  would  serve  to  give  force  to  the  lights 
are  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  crowded  out  of  the  pictures, 
In  some  cases  banished  utterly,  the  coloring  Is  rich  In  con- 
trasts. The  pigments  are  twice  as  luminous  as  before.  In 
addition,  wholly  new  color  chords  assert  themselves,  a  pure 
summer-green  which  prior  to  that  time  was  not  permitted 
upon  the  palette,  a  vivid  blue  in  shadows  and  atmospheric 
tints,  and  frequent  refractions  of  red  lights  and  blue  shadows 
blending  Into  violet  middle  tones.  In  general,  the  total  effect 
of  the  pictures  Is  colder  than  before — less  red  and  yellow, 
more  blue  and  green,  and  instead  of  the  previous  abundance 
of  brown,  rather  grey  and  violet.  Further  than  that,  the 
modeling  has  become  less  sculpturesque  than  formerly,  as 
regards  roundness  of  contour  and  distribution  of  light,  more 
pictorial  In  Its  planes,  broken  with  reflections,  and  wrapped 
In  atmospheric  tones.  In  certain  of  the  pictures  the  painter 
has  attempted  to  apply  the  principles  of  the  division  of  color, 


504  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

and  tried  to  attain  a  heightened  effect  from  the  pigments  by 
laying  the  components  of  the  various  hues  side  by  side  upon 
the  canvas  in  greater  or  less  purity. 

In  drawing  and  composition,  too,  great  changes  have 
taken  place.  The  design  is  no  longer  clean  and  clear,  as  in 
older  works,  showing  a  thousand  details.  It  has  been  ab- 
sorbed by  the  picture  and  has  been  indissolubly  merged  with 
the  brush-technique.  All  minutiae  of  outline  have  been 
neglected,  partly  because  the  draughtsmanship  has  not  been 
of  interest  to  the  artist,  partly  for  fear  of  deadening  the  pic- 
torial effect.  Even  the  perspective  has  undergone  alteration. 
The  subject  is  seen  at  closer  range,  the  foreground  crowds 
upon  the  spectator  so  that  objects  assume  a  larger  appear- 
ance, and  the  station  point  is  higher  than  before.  From  ull 
this  it  follows  that  the  composition  itself  has  suffered  altera- 
tion as  well. 

Naturalistic  painting  has  often  been  criticized  for  faults 
of  composition.  Among  us  particularly,  where  the  artists 
for  the  most  part  were  self-taught,  in  the  absence  of  an  acad- 
emy or  an  established  school,  it  was  well-nigh  unavoidable 
that  the  principles  of  composition  should  tend  to  relax.  For 
that  matter,  it  was  a  feature  of  the  programme  of  naturalism 
itself  to  break  old  and  traditional  rules  of  composition. 
According  to  the  tenets  of  the  new  art  a  picture  ought  to  be 
a  transcript  from  nature.  Thus  it  was  not  so  much  a  ques- 
tion of  what  one  transcribed  as  of  how  one  did  it.  The 
laying  in  of  the  subject  itself  became  the  principal  thing,  for 
through  it  the  lines  of  the  picture  were  determined.  It  was 
less  a  matter  of  elaborating  a  composition  than  of  search- 
ing out  a  theme.  From  fear  of  the  academic  the  choice  often 
fell  upon  the  casual,  and  from  fear  of  the  conventional  there 
was  an  inclination  toward  the  bizarre.  Instantaneous  pho- 
tography also  had  Its  effect  upon  art.  While  previously  it 
had  been  out  of  the  question  to  paint  half  of  a  figure  or  a 
part  of  an  object  intersected  by  the  picture  frame,  now 
fragments  of  people  and  things  protrude  constantly  within 
the  frame.  Yet  In  spite  of  such  fortuitousness  among  the 
greater  number,  there  was  still  among  the  best  of  our  natu- 


MODIlRN   NOKVVI-X.IAN    art  505 

rallsts  a  dawning  decorative  sense  which,  in  great  measure 
unknown  to  themselves,  gave  poise  to  their  pictures.  There 
is  more  of  decorative  power  in  the  paintings  from  the  eigh- 
ties than  in  those  of  the  older  generations.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, before  the  following  decades  that  the  adorning  ele- 
ments were  able  to  liberate  themseh-cs  sufficiently  to  become 
pure  decorative  art. 

This  period  of  the  emergence  of  Norwegian  naturalism 
was  a  time  of  contention  and  wrath,  during  which  the  welkin 
rang  with  shibboleths,  war-cries,  criminations,  and  recrimi- 
nations. The  public  was  wholly  without  orientation  as 
regards  the  new  open-air  movement,  and  at  first  felt  nothing 
but  a  vast  sense  of  Indignity.  So  far  as  the  critics  were  con- 
cerned, they  were  hardly  more  than  tale-bearers  in  ordinary, 
who  by  means  of  warning  and  abuse  provoked  one  party 
against  the  other,  and  so  widened  the  cleavage  between  the 
public  and  the  representatives  of  the  new  tendency.  The 
artists,  on  their  side,  disported  themselves  gleefully  upon 
the  waves  of  displeasure.  Viewed  impartially  from  without, 
the  battle  that  they  were  waging  had  somewhat  the  appear- 
ance of  a  hailstorm  of  youthful  challenges  and  Irritating 
exaggerations.  They  most  Indubitably  were  just  what  they 
were  accused  of  being — one-sided.  None  the  less,  they 
gained  In  power  as  they  narrowed  their  horizon,  since  they 
made  of  one-sidedness  a  coat  of  mail.  Through  defiance 
their  strength  Increased;  for  behind  that  defiance  was  a 
stout  faith  in  what  to  them  was  the  only  right  thing. 
Opposition  among  public  and  press  was  of  the  strongest; 
but  In  a  surprisingly  short  time  it  was  conquered.  At  the 
close  of  the  eighties  the  victory  was  won  beyond  a  doubt; 
the  leading  naturalists  were  commonly  acknowledged  as  our 
foremost  artists,  and  In  their  footsteps  walked  the  new  gen- 
eration of  painters. 

That  the  struggle  was  so  unexpectedly  brief  and  that 
recognition  was  at  last  so  unanimous  Is  not  to  be  ascribed 
alone  to  the  circumstance  that  In  this  group  of  painters 
there  really  was  an  abundance  of  talent.  Talent  In  painting 
of  Itself  would  not  have  brought  triumph  to  the  banners  of 


506  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Norwegian  naturalism.  The  naturalistic  tendency  in  art 
had  a  background  for  its  striving  in  the  general  development 
of  the  nation  and  in  revolutions  that  were  taking  place  in 
the  various  domains  of  culture  during  those  years.  The 
painters  themselves  were  only  a  small  band  in  the  advancing 
army  which  at  that  period  was  breaking  a  way  for  itself 
through  barriers  of  tradition. 

The  salty  stream  which  from  the  dramas  of  Ibsen  flowed 
through  the  intellectual  life  of  the  land,  and  of  Europe,  with 
the  lofty  sky  of  individualism  above  it,  the  fresh  mountain 
wind  which  came  forth  from  the  poetry  and  the  rousing 
activities  of  Bjornson,  the  purifying  fire  of  Georg  Brandes's 
criticism,  the  passion  for  truth  in  the  books  of  Garborg  and 
Jceger,  and  the  waves  of  radicalism  that  rolled  high  in 
national  politics,  all  these  things  formed  the  domestic 
background  for  the  battle  in  which  the  painters  were 
engaged. 

The  background,  meanwhile,  broadens  out.  Behind  the 
young  pilgrims  returning  from  Paris  we  descry  revolutions 
and  formative  events  in  the  cultural  life  of  Europe  through- 
out all  the  fields  of  thought,  of  art,  of  social  consciousness. 
The  positivistic  philosophy  with  its  revaluation  of  old  stand- 
ards constitutes  in  a  way  the  remotest  part  of  the  perspec- 
tive. The  sobering  effect  of  naturalistic  research  upon 
science,  sociology,  and  art  comes  next  in  importance.  Men 
began  to  take  into  more  systematic  account  the  experiences 
of  the  senses.  As  a  twin  brother  of  empiricism  in  science, 
naturalism  in  art  grew  more  vigorous.  And  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  individualistic  and  anarchistic  tendencies  that 
gave  the  strongest  incentives  to  the  minds  of  men  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  naturalism  became  impressionism.  As 
the  actual  soil  from  which  all  these  things  burst  into  being 
we  perceive  democracy  itself,  vast,  extensive,  restlessly  heav- 
ing with  repressed  discontent  and  earth-bound  dreams  of 
happiness — the  desire  for  social  revolution  as  the  foundation 
of  it  all.  The  revival  in  Norwegian  painting  was  thus 
merely  a  reflexion  from  deep  intellectual  currents  that  shook 
the  world  in  their  passing. 


THE  NATURALISTS:  THAULOW,  KROHG,  AND 
WERENSKIOLD.     GERHARD   MUNTHE 

IN  THE  combative  generation  of  naturalists  in  the  eigh- 
ties Thaulow,  Krohg,  and  Werenskiold  were  the  leading 
spirits.  Fritz  Thaulow,  who  was  born  in  Christiania 
in  1847,  was  the  oldest  among  them  and  the  first  to  give 
battle;  but  he  was  also  the  first  to  withdraw  from  the  con- 
test and  to  turn  his  back  upon  the  narrow  circumstances 
that  surrounded  art  in  his  native  land.  When  Thaulow 
came  home  to  Christiania  in  1880  and  there  met  Christian 
Krohg,  it  was  as  an  avowed  naturalist  and  as  an  enthusi- 
astic European,  so-called.  Both  were  radical  and  eager  to 
take  up  the  cudgels  against  the  limitations  of  domestic  taste 
in  art.  Conscious  of  the  oppressive  atmosphere  which 
rested  upon  intellectual  life  in  Christiania,  the  two  Euro- 
peans formed  a  close  friendship,  and  by  reason  of  their 
contrasting  characters  and  gifts  they  also  influenced  each 
other  professionally. 

Upon  his  arrival  from  Paris  Thaulow  was  a  full-blooded 
naturalist  with  a  touch  of  impressionism.  First  and  above 
all,  he  was  an  adherent  of  open-air  painting:  the  landscape 
painter  should  be  forbidden  to  have  a  studio;  landscapes 
should  be  executed  out  of  ddOrs  from  nature  itself,  and  the 
picture  should  be  an  actual  portrait  and  transcript  of  nature; 
and  love  of  truth  should  be  the  highest  artistic  requirement. 
Still,  Thaulow  always  had  the  knack  of  choosing  his  subjects. 
A  feeling  for  balance  and  pictorial  effect  was  never  wanting 
in  his  tasteful  and  fastidious  work.  Krohg  and  Thaulow 
were  in  so  far  opposites  that  while  Krohg  saw  democratic 

507 


508  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

proclamation  of  truth  as  the  aim  of  art,  Thaulow  insisted 
even  at  this  early  date  that  art  in  the  nature  of  things  must 
be  aristocratic,  a  pleasure  of  the  few  and  a  pleasure  alone. 

In  the  art  life  of  Christiania  during  the  eighties  Fritz 
Thaulow  played  an  important  role.  He  seemed  to  have  a 
native  gift  for  attracting  young  people.  Active  and  hand- 
some, enthusiastic  and  amiable,  well-to-do  and  independent, 
full  of  good  humor  and  confidence,  with  an  air  of  foreign 
culture  and  a  certain  quality  that  could  not  fail  to  make  him 
noticeable  as  a  man  about  town,  Fritz  was  the  lion  of  the 
day.  Everybody  knew  him,  almost  everybody  liked  him ;  his 
comrades  and  all  of  Christiania  with  them  called  him  only 
by  his  first  name. 

In  the  long  and  acrimonious  struggle  with  Kunstfore- 
ningen  he  took  an  active  part.  This  institution,  the  object  of 
which  was  to  buy  and  parcel  out  works  of  art  to  its  members, 
and  which  commanded  a  considerable  budget,  measured  with 
the  standards  of  the  time,  was  governed  by  an  altogether 
incompetent  board  of  directors.  It  was  impossible  in  the 
long  run  for  the  painters  to  be  content  with  a  state  of  affairs 
in  which  all  sorts  of  amateurish,  untalented  productions  were 
purchased  and  spread  through  the  homes  to  assess  for  them- 
selves the  modicum  of  interest  in  art  that  existed  in  Chris- 
tiania at  that  day.  The  conflict  led  to  a  long-continued 
strike,  which  ended  in  victory  for  the  artists:  no  picture  was 
to  be  considered  for  purchase  that  had  not  previously  been 
passed  upon  favorably  by  a  jury  of  their  own  number.  The 
campaign,  though  difficult,  had  been  conducted  on  the  part 
of  the  artists  with  unyielding  persistency.  Its  leaders  were 
Werenskiold,  Thaulow,  and  Krohg. 

As  a  teacher,  too,  Thaulow  exerted  a  great  influence.  It 
was  he  who  established  the  so-called  open  air  academy  at 
Modum,  a  village  near  Christiania,  whither  a  large  group 
of  young  painters  followed  him  to  practise  under  his  direc- 
tion the  precepts  of  outdoor  study.  Here  at  Modum  Thau- 
low painted  his  large  picture,  now  in  the  National  Gallery, 
of  Hougsfossen  in  spring  flood,  tumbling  down  the  moun- 
tain-side in  foaming  cascades  and  dirty  yellow  eddies. 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN   ART 


509 


In  the  period  that  follows  he  chooses  his  ihciiics  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  from  Christiania  itself  and  from  the  inmie- 
diate  environs.  He  has  painted  the  Palace  Park  when  leaves 
are  bursting  and  when  snow  covers  the  ground,  the  Storting 
Square  in  Wind  and  Sleet — a  picture  from  the  year  1881, 
and  the  hovels  along  the  Aker  River.  lie  had  a  happy 
season  of  study  down  at  Kragero  in  1882,  during  which 
on  clear  winter  days  he   pictured   coasting  parties   in  the 


The  Storting  Square  in  Wind  and  Sleet,  by  Fritz  Thaulow.     Privately 
owned 


streets  between  the  little,  motley  houses  of  the  skippers  or, 
as  spring  advanced,  made  careful  observations  of  delicate 
sunshine  upon  rocky  knolls  and  of  the  naked  branches  of 
apple  trees  against  sunny  walls. 

With  the  passing  of  the  eighties  Thaulow  painted  mostly 
winter  pieces,  which  more  and  more  became  his  specialty; 
and  they  carried  his  fame  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  native 
land.  After  the  Universal  Exposition  In  Paris  In  1889,  at 
which  Thaulow  served  as  a  juror  together  with  Skredsvlg, 
the  Luxembourg  Museum  bought  one  of  his  typical  snow 
scenes  from  Vestre  Aker,  of  the  year  1887,  entitled  Ski- 
runners.  Later,  during  the  nineties.  In  addition  to  the  snow 
themes,  river  pictures  had  a  particular  Interest  for  Thaulow. 


510 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


A  Street  in  Kragerd,  by  Fritz  Thaulow.     In  the  National  Gallery 


The  Luxembourg  also  has  a  pastel  by  him,  The  Old  Factory 
at  Lysaker. 

Thaulow's  art  has  always  been  lacking  in  solidity  and 
rather  inclined  toward  softness.  So  long  as  he  had  Norwe- 
gian earth  under  foot  he  contended  against  this  failing.  In 
the  long  run,  however,  Thaulow  with  his  international  lean- 
ings was  not  to  be  contained  within  the  limits  of  the  ancestral 
land,  which  according  to  him  had  no  significance  for  art.  In 
1 89 1  he  left  Norway,  and  lived  first  in  London,  later  in 
Montreuil,  a  little  old  town  in  Normandy,  and  thereafter  in 
Dieppe;  as  the  guest  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  he  visited 
America  in  1897,  but  subsequently  returned  to  Paris  and 
remained  there  for  several  years.  In  the  course  of  these 
wanderings  his  art  underwent  many  changes. 

As  a  colorist  Thaulow  was  possessed  of  sure  and  culti- 
vated intelligence  and  above  all  of  good  taste.  He  never 
grappled  with  pigments  in  their  whole  volume;  his  coloring 
always  played  upon  muffled  strings.  He  was  most  at  his 
ease  among  soft  intermediate  tones  with  suave  gradations. 
In  his  landscapes  form  counted  for  very  little,  the  arrange- 


MODERN   N()RWFX;iAN  ART 


511 


winter  Scene  from  the  Mesna  River,  by  Fritz  Thaulow 

ment  of  the  subject  upon  the  canvas  for  considerably  more, 
but  color  was  really  all-important.  Whatsoever  he  painted 
he  was  enticed  to  paint  by  his  love  of  color.  He  has  caught 
the  paLe  tone  in  the  atmosphere  of  Paris;  he  has  delighted 
in  the  delicate  patina  with  which  time  has  woven  a  web  about 
a  half-weathered  city  hke  Venice ;  and  in  a  series  of  pictures 
with  differing  light  effects  he  has  found  pleasure  In  variations 
upon  the  theme  of  an  old  brick-red,  arched  bridge  in  Verona. 
It  seems  remarkable  that  this  International  art-Epicurean, 
who  toward  the  close  of  his  life  was  influenced  by  French, 
Scottish,  and  American  painters  such  as  Cazin,  Cottet,  and 
Whistler,  and  who  found  his  public  and  his  markets  In  Paris, 
in  London,  and  particularly  in  America,  should  have  gained 
the  reputation  of  being  a  distinctly  typical  Norwegian  artist. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  In  his  declining  years  Thaulow  was 
totally  out  of  touch  with  art  life  In  Norway.  It  cannot  be 
said  of  him  to  the  same  degree  as  of  his  comrades  and  the 
greater  number  of  his  pupils  that  he  remained  true  to  natu- 
ralism. Sated  with  the  rank,  earthy  savor  of  open-air  paint- 


512  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

ing,  he  returned  in  his  final  period  to  the  laboratory  of  the 
atelier. 

He  has  been  the  object  of  reproach  on  this  account.  Yet 
what  should  one  say?  In  the  end,  naturahsm  did  not  accord 
with  his  gifts.  His  inclinations  and  tastes  ran  in  another 
direction.  Noticeably  enough,  it  is  just  with  examples  of 
his  later  manner  that  he  has  created  a  furore  at  exhibitions 
throughout  the  world,  and  it  is  with  these  that  he  is  repre- 
sented in  the  great  museums  and  collections  round  about,  not 
excepting  the  White  House  at  Washington,  where  now 
hangs  his  Evening  in  Pittsburgh,  done  in  1897.  He  de- 
veloped somewhat  in  virtuosity  during  these  last  years,  but 
his  talents  did  not  gain  measurably  in  depth  through  this 
concluding  phase  of  his  career,  during  which  pictures  flowed 
from  his  hand  with  such  facility,  a  downright  uncanny  facil- 
ity, and  with  ingratiating  and  at  times  fundamentally  false 
effects.  The  Thaulow  who  is  most  likely  to  keep  his  ground 
in  the  history  of  Norwegian  art  is  he  who  worked  hard  at 
painting  skippers'  houses  and  rocky  knolls  in  his  native 
Norway  in  the  merciless  daylight  of  the  eighties.  Thaulow 
died  in  Holland  in  November,  1906. 

Christian  Krohg  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1852.  He 
bears  the  name  of  his  grandfather,  the  celebrated  jurist 
Christian  Krohg,  who  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  cham- 
pions in  our  struggle  for  national  independence  during  the 
first  period  of  the  union  with  Sweden  subsequent  to  18 14. 
After  taking  the  degree  of  candidatus  juris  Krohg  proceeded 
in  the  early  seventies  to  Karlsruhe,  where  he  became  a  pupil 
of  Gussow.  Later  he  studied  under  the  same  master  in 
Berlin,  and  there  he  was  a  friend  and  fellow-student  of  Max 
Klinger.  In  1879  he  returned  to  Norway  to  enter  upon 
what  was  to  be  his  principal  work;  painting  the  life  of  the 
poor  in  Christiania, 

Endowed  as  he  was  with  the  most  powerful  grasp  of 
reality  and  with  great  pictorial  gifts,  a  democrat  by  innate 
disposition,  a  journalist  inclined  toward  the  literary  in  his 
art  as  well,  a  disciple  of  Zola  quite  as  much  as  of  Manet, 
he  was  the  man,  more  than  any  other  among  us,  who  pro- 


M()1)I<:RN   N()K\Vi:(ilAN   y\RI  513 

claimed  the  cjooina  of  tlic  social  mission  of  art.  Witli  j)ciicil 
no  less  than  with  pen  he  published  his  convictions.  J'"-\en 
the  themes  of  his  iirst  pictures  are  evidential.  In  1880  he 
painted  The  Dawn,  which  at  once  gave  offence  to  the  cul- 
tured. This  canvas  shows  a  poor  seamstress  just  as  she 
has  fallen  asleep  in  her  garret  over  a  silk  dress  upon  which 
she  has  been  at  work  during  the  night.  Her  chest  is  sunken, 
the  lamp  smokes,  the  blue  winter  morning  sifts  in  through 
the  window-shade  and  touches  with  cold  light  the  face  and 
hands  of  the  exhausted  girl.  In  her  lap  lies  the  expensive 
lace-trimmed  gown  designed  for  the  ball  that  is  to  speed 
the  coming  night  for  a  woman  more  happily  situated  in 
society.  People  scented  the  socialistic  tendency  and  were 
startled.  The  picture  finally  found  a  lodging  in  the  Gothen- 
burg Museum.  In  Krohg's  next  painting  also,  A  Call  for 
the  Doctor,  it  is  the  social  contrasts  that  engage  his  atten- 
tion. Here  it  is  a  contrast  between  abundance  and  want, 
between  the  happy,  wined  and  dined  company  about  the 
glittering  board  from  which  the  doctor  is  summoned  and 
the  bowed,  thinly  dressed  working-woman  who  begs  him  to 
visit  a  death  bed  in  her  poverty-stricken  home. 

There  is  one  reservation  to  be  made  with  respect  to  all 
of  these  pictures,  and  the  objection  attaches  also  to  some 
among  Krohg's  later  works:  it  is  suspiciously  literary  art. 
There  is  something  of  German  genre  painting  in  it  all,  and 
something  sentimental.  The  youthful  Krohg  was  not  merely 
in  possession  of  a  pair  of  sound  eyes  and  a  painter's  faculty 
for  enjoying  what  he  saw;  he  also  had  a  democratic  philoso- 
phy of  life  to  propound.  And  with  his  gift  for  painting 
he  had  a  real  gift  for  writing.  Thus  It  came  about  that  on 
occasion  he  attempted  to  paint  novelettes  with  a  purpose. 

In  the  National  Gallery  there  hangs  a  picture  by  Krohg, 
typical  of  this  early  period  and  belonging  among  his  best 
pieces.  The  Sick  Girl,  painted  in  1880  immediately  after  his 
return  from  Berlin  and  the  precepts  of  Gussow.  The  scene 
is  unforgettable  by  reason  of  the  intensity  with  which  the 
subject  is  conceived  and  the  steadiness  of  hand  with  which  it 
is  committed  to  the  canvas.     The  momentary  Illusion  is  so 


5L4 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


vivid  that  the  first 
impression  is  one 
of  Hfe  and  not  of 
art.  Those  large 
burning  eyes  in  the 
waxen  face,  sur- 
rounded by  all  that 
mass  of  white  in 
the  invalid's  chair, 
the  woollen  blan- 
ket, the  night- 
gown, the  pillow — 
those  eyes  will  not 
loosen  their  hold, 
they  penetrate  to 
the  inmost  soul  and 
touch  strings  that 
vibrate  to  the  most 
veritably  human  of 
emotions.  Still 
there  is  something 
obtrusive  in  the 
painfully  direct 
gaze  that  trans- 
fixes the  spectator 
and  In  the  pale 
rose  dropping  Its 
petals,  which  the  consumptive  holds  In  her  hands.  On  look- 
ing more  closely  one  is  further  struck  by  the  hard-handed 
manner  in  which  certain  passages  are  painted,  the  dry  zeal 
with  which  the  folds  of  the  night-dress  are  modelled,  as  If 
the  artist  were  handling  plaster.  To  what  purpose  such  an 
illusion  of  the  wax-works  ! 

Edvard  Munch,  too,  has  painted  a  youthful  picture  upon 
a  similar  theme.  The  Sick  Child,  probably  not  without  a 
knowledge  of  Krohg's  accomplishment.  The  contrast  Is 
striking  and  Instructive.     Krohg  has  limited  himself  to  mak- 


The  Sick  Girl,  by  Christian  Krohg.     In  the 
National  Gallery 


M()I)i;kN    NOkWI'.CIAN    AkI 


515 


iii^  a  poi-traK  ol  Ins  slrickcn  motlcl  ;  Miiiuh  has  ;^i\cn  scope 
to  his  Iccliiios  in  a  coiiiposilioii  rich  with  color,  in  which  the 
mother  ol  the  chiKl  is  pi-eseiit  ami  (ieteniiincs  the  lines. 
Kroh^'s  painting  is,  in  short,  realistic  still  life.  It  {j;ives 
evitlence  of  a  model,  of  material,  of  form,  and  of  hues  which 
the  artist  has  had  before  his  eyes  and  which  he  has  imitatetl. 
Munch's  work  is  a  tone  poem,  and  yet  a  comjiosition  with 
tOLiehingly  simple  line  effects.  Not  more  than  six  years  sepa- 
rate the  two  canvases,  but  they  represent  art  from  two  dif- 
ferent epochs. 

Krohg  had  a  happy  season  of  creative  activity  while  he 
lived  in  1883  at  Skagen  and  there  painted  the  daily  life  of 
tisherfolk  in  their  little  cottages.  As  Michael  Ancher  and 
Kroyer  portrayed  the  stout  seadogs  in  hip-boots  and  south- 
westers  at  their  work  on  the  water,  Krohg  gave  his  attention 
especially  to  those  who  were  left  at  home,  old  people  mend- 
ing the  nets  and  women  at  their  household  tasks  with  the 
children.  Two  of  his  most  admirable  achievements  from 
the    Skagen    period    are    a    glorification    of    motherhood. 


The  Sleeping  Mother  and  Child,  by  Christian  Krohg.     In  the  Bergen 
Picture  Gallery 


516  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Mother  and  Child,  in  the  National  Gallery,  is  a  simple  and 
clear  composition  disclosing  a  sailor's  young  wife  at  the  bed- 
side of  her  child.  The  mother's  broad,  arched  back  forms 
a  culminating  mass  of  violet  and  stands  out  in  a  character- 
istic manner  against  the  whitewashed  background.  As  re- 
gards color  scheme  The  Sleeping  Mother  and  Child  in 
Rasmus  Meyer's  collection  at  Bergen  is  still  better.  More 
straightforward  and  sincere  it  is  impossible  for  a  picture 
from  life  to  be,  and  as  painting  it  possesses  inimitable  beau- 
ties. Beside  the  white  bed  stands  the  red  cradle  with  the 
sleeping  babe.  The  young  mother  has  perhaps  sung  the 
infant  to  sleep  with  her  knitting  between  her  hands.  Now 
she  has  herself  fallen  into  slumber,  her  head  resting  against 
the  bedstead.  Her  entire  body  is  relaxed  in  deep  repose. 
On  the  coffee-stained  table  stands  a  dish  of  porridge  half 
eaten;  and  all  is  so  quiet  that  one  seems  to  hear  the  buzzing 
of  flies  in  the  evening  sun  and  the  rhythmic  breathing  of  the 
sleepers.  The  picture  is  executed  with  unexampled  loveli- 
ness, with  firm  and  easy  touch,  and  with  equal  finish  and 
strength  of  tone.  Smaller  canvases,  admirable  in  coloring, 
from  the  same  brilliant  period  in  Krohg's  production,  with 
related  motives  from  Skagen  are  on  the  walls  of  the  Na- 
tional Gallery.  Nevertheless  there  is  a  rise  in  the  quality 
of  Krohg's  work  from  these  splendid  paintings  to  the  mas- 
terpiece of  his  life,  the  Albertine. 

In  1885  appeared  Hans  Jaeger's  book.  The  Christiania 
Bohemians,  with  its  ruthless  self-revelations  and  its  violent 
attacks  on  existing  society.  Upon  a  large  number  of  youths 
this  first  Norwegian  naturalistic  novel,  as  It  has  been 
called,  made  a  profound  impression,  an  impression  fur- 
ther strengthened  by  the  treatment  which  the  book  and  its 
author  received  at  the  hands  of  the  reputedly  liberal  gov- 
ernment of  Sverdrup :  the  edition  was  seized,  and  the 
writer  was  committed  to  prison  upon  sentence  by  the  su- 
preme court.  This  violation  of  the  freedom  of  the  press 
consolidated  all  true  radicals;  and  Christian  Krohg  came 
forward  in  the  first  rank  to  defend  Jasger  and  naturalistic 
literature. 


M()I)I*;RN    NOKWI'XilAN   ART 


17 


Albertine,  by  Christian  Krohg.     In  the  National  Gallery 

The  following  year  Krohg  himself  published  a  novel  of 
similar  stamp  under  the  title  of  Albertine,  an  unveiled 
account  of  a  poor  Christiania  girl's  joyless  life  and  putative 
fall,  her  shocking  seduction  and  resultant  degradation  to  the 
prostitute's  caste  by  means  of  the  brutal  medical  examination 
under  police  authority  which  at  that  time  was  in  vogue, 
Krohg's  book,  too,  was  confiscated,  and  he  was  subjected  to 
a  fine.  The  novel,  however,  which  was  accepted  as  a  denun- 
ciation of  the  system  of  prostitution,  brought  about  a  popu- 
lar movement  against  the  government  which  muzzled  litera- 
ture while  it  tolerated  mercenary  vice. 

In  the  following  year,  1887,  the  painter  came  before  the 
public  with  his  large  canvas,  Albertine  in  the  Waiting-room 
of  the  Police  Doctor.  Great  as  was  the  commotion  aroused 
by  the  book,  the  painting  suffered  a  corresponding  degree 
of  neglect  on  being  shown  in  a  vacant  shop.  Critics  took 
exception  to  it,  and  the  best  society  did  not  venture  to  look 
at  it,  much  less  to  buy  it.  None  the  less,  while  the  novel, 
having  fulfilled  its  mission,  was  forgotten,  the  picture  sur- 
vived and  will  survive  as  one  of  the  greatest  achievements 
in  Norwegian  art.  What  Krohg  had  in  mind  and  what  he 
so  brilliantly  accomplished  was  that  depiction  of  milieu  upon 


518  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

which  the  naturalistic  doctrine  laid  such  stress,  and  which 
never  before  had  been  expressed  in  Scandinavian  painting 
with  even  approximate  power.  For  that  matter,  the  canons 
of  naturalism  have  in  no  instance  been  more  boldly  and 
vigorously  exemplified.  As  a  narrative  it  may  be  that  the 
work  is  not  exactly  obvious,  yet  that  only  adds  to  its  value  as 
a  picture.  It  has  its  faults  of  composition  no  less  than  its 
excellences;  but  as  a  document  in  typology  it  is  probably 
without  parallel  in  the  whole  range  of  naturalistic  art.  As 
a  painting  it  exhibits  the  most  splendid  details.  With  what 
skill  the  two  powerful  foreground  figures  are  managed, 
the  woman  in  velvet  and  the  woman  in  watered  silk,  what 
firm  and  flowing  outlines,  what  adroitness  in  the  use  of  the 
brilliant  carnation  and  the  bedizened  finery  to  enhance  the 
total  color  effect — it  is  all  magnificent.  This  canvas  reveals 
a  master  hand.  Here  the  question  might  actually  arise  of 
a  trial  of  strength  between  French  and  Norwegian  painting, 
a  comparison  of  Norwegian  force  and  immediacy  with 
French  esprit  and  taste. 

To  discuss  Krohg  further  after  dilating  on  this  picture  is 
hardly  worth  the  trouble,  in  part  because  he  has  done  noth- 
ing better,  in  part  because  he  has  not  been  able  to  maintain 
this  height.  Still  Krohg's  production  has  been  very  copious 
and  full  of  surprising  things  among  the  terrific  quantity  of 
routine  work  that  has  come  from  his  brush.  His  next  large 
social  subject,  The  Struggle  for  Existence,  from  the  year 
1890,  in  which  Hans  Jaeger  put  such  great  faith,  was  an 
effective  contribution  in  the  campaign  against  pauperism ;  but 
as  art  it  is  far  from  equalling  its  predecessor,  despite  excel- 
lently handled  details.  It  is  significant  that  while  this  new 
colossal  canvas  was  immediately  bought  for  the  National 
Gallery,  the  Albertine  has  had  to  wait  half  a  generation  for 
a  place  in  the  art  museum  of  the  State.     It  is  now  there. 

It  is  usually  in  pictures  whose  subjects  crowd  the  canvas 
somewhat  that  Krohg's  composition  is  at  its  best,  particu- 
larly in  the  representation  of  seamen.  Here  he  has  really 
a  special  field  and  a  knack  of  his  own  in  painting  at  close 
range  on  board  a  boat  or  a  cutter  or  from  the  deck  of  a 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


519 


On  the  Look-out  for  the  Pilot,  by  Christian  Krohg.     Privately  owned 

ship.  Under  such  circumstances  he  demonstrates  a  peculiar 
facility  in  balancing  the  composition  by  means  of  lines  cut- 
ting obliquely  within  the  frame,  horizontals  and  verticals 
in  careening  position  with  reference  to  the  free  balance  of 
the  living  human  figure.  The  effect  is  striking  and  amusing; 
but  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  the  detailed  arrangement  of 
his  subjects  upon  the  canvas  he  has  learned  very  much 
from  the  Frenchmen,  notably  from  Degas. 

Finally  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Krohg  has  dis- 
tinguished himself  as  a  portrait  painter.  With  Werenskiold 
he  shares  the  supremacy  among  his  own  generation.  There 
is  a  tremendous  difference  between  the  two,  nevertheless: 
Werenskiold  has  the  searching,  striving,  delving  method  of 
characterization  that  plumbs  the  depths  to  discover  diversi- 
ties of  soul  and  explores  the  surface  in  quest  of  precision; 
Krohg  boldly  hits  the  mark  by  direct  force  of  vision  and 
intrepidity  of  hand.  A  milieu  portrait  so  spirited  and  pic- 
torial and  intellectual  as  that  which  he  painted  in  1883  of 
Gerhard  Munthe  in  his  fur  coat  entering  the  Grand  Cafe 
has  about  it  something  of  the  quality  of  portraits  by  Manet, 
although  it  has  less  firmness  and  solidity.  Take  another 
instance,  his  full-length  portrait  of  Johan  Sverdrup  hang- 


520 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of  the  Painter  Gerhard  Munthe,  by  Christian  Krohg 


ing  in  the  Storting,  done  in  1882 — how  it  depicts  character 
in  attitude  and  gesture  and  effective  setting:  the  little,  ele- 
gant, reserved  man  in  the  large  dark  canvas. 

Krohg  has  produced  many  excellent  portraits,  yet  two  of 
them  surpass  the  others.  One  is  the  noble  and  heart-stir- 
ring likeness  from  the  year  1893,  of  his  own  aunt,  the  aged 
Froken  Krohg  with  the  kind,  bright  eyes  and  the  wrinkled 


M0D1<:RN  NORVVFCilAN   ARl  521 


Portrait  of  Prime  Minister  Johan  Sverdrup,  by  Christian  Krohg. 
In  the  Storting 


522 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Agnes,  by  Christian  Krohg.     In  the  National  Gallery 


hands.     The  other  is  an  almost  unknown  study  from  his 
Albertine    period,    probably    dating    from    1889,    entitled 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


523 


Study  for  Albertine,  by  Christian  Krohg.     Privately  owned 


Agnes  or,  as  he  called  It  later,  The  Girl  of  the  Eighties. 
She  is  a  child  of  the  streets  with  large  burning  eyes,  an 
animal  type  of  woman  from  the  lower  classes,  presented 
with  a  feeling,  a  masculine  Instinct,  and  a  masterly  sim- 
plicity which  make  the  work  a  classic  for  all  time.  Krohg 
Is  still  living  In  Christlania  and  continuing  his  production, 
a  production  of  extremely  uneven  value. 

The  third  and  in  some  respects  the  most  significant 
personality  in  the  art  life  of  the  eighties  was  Erik 
Werenskiold,  who  was  born  at  Kongsvinger  in  1855.     Dur- 


524  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


"In  the  Evening  They  Came  to  a  Big,  Fine  House."     Vignette 

for  the  tale  of  The  Three  Princesses  in  the  Mountain  Blue,  by 

Erik  Werenskiold 

ing  the  years  of  the  battle  for  naturahsm  he  was  hi  fact  the 
strong,  unswerving  leader  of  the  modern  movement.  So 
buoyant  and  capable  of  development  are  his  intelligence  and 
his  talents  that  Werenskiold  even  at  this  day,  in  spite  of  his 
sixty-six  years,  is  a  fighter  in  the  ranks  of  the  young,  with 
an  open  vision  for  other  artistic  values  than  those  which 
stirred  the  enthusiasm  of  his  own  youth.  In  Werenskiold's 
temperament  there  is  a  blending  of  will-power,  clear,  cold 
calculation,  and  something  of  the  quiet,  gentle  visionary. 
He  is  a  compound  of  logician  and  lyrist. 

Werenskiold  spent  his  first  period  of  study  in  Munich, 
where  the  instruction  of  Lofftz  particularly  had  a  certain 
influence  on  his  early  development.  Even  in  Munich,  how- 
ever, he  felt  himself  to  be  a  naturalist;  even  here  his  aim 
was  national.  The  first  large  canvas  that  he  sent  home,  one 
that  attracted  real  and  lasting  interest  in  his  talent,  has  a 
genre  subject  in  which  peasants  appear;  it  was  painted  in 
1880  and  entitled  A  Meeting.  The  picture  impresses  a 
thoroughly  modern  observer  as  being  rather  German,  both 
in  color  and  in  narrative  appeal.  Yet  it  has  a  characteriza- 
tion that  is  markedly  realistic  for  its  time  and  it  denotes  a 
resolute  advance  beyond  Tidemand's  and  even  Sundt- 
Hansen's  depiction  of  peasant  life.  The  laconic  lovemaking, 
the  heavy,  rustic  joking  between  the  young,  slender  hay- 
maker and  the  girls  that  meet  in  the  fields  all  reveal  a  subtle 
and  sure  perception  of  the  manners  and  the  peculiarities  of 
rural  people.  Meanwhile  Werenskiold  had,  as  early  as  the 
period  1 878-1 880,  made  his  first  drawings  for  the  popular 
tales.  By  these  illustrations  he  had  given  evidence  of  both 
the  originality  and  the  astonishing  maturity  of  his  talents. 


MODI'.RN   NORWI'.CIAN   ART 


525 


There  are  lew  things  in  Norwegian  art  of  which  it  may 
be  saitl  with  full  assurance  that  they  are  classic; 
WerenskioKl's  illustrations  for  the  talcs  arc  among  those 
few.    It  is  easy  enough  to  explain  why  this  is  the  case.    It  is 


„^^/^iK  '• 

■ 

If 

k  1 

1 

#              ,        1 

i  'l^Wj^ll 

* 

^ 

r '  ;f^ 

f. ' 

"And  Then  they  All  Three  Begged  and  Pleaded  with  the  Watchman." 

Illustration  for  the  tale  of  The  Three  Princesses  in  the  Mountain  Blue, 

by   Erik   Werenskiold 


526  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

because  the  form  is  as  good  as  the  subject  matter  and  the 
subject  matter  significant  and  valuable  in  itself.  Just  as 
Asbjornsen  and  Moe's  retelling  of  the  tales  was  the  first 
literary  portrayal  of  folk-life  that  had  a  dependable  and 
really  Norwegian  tone,  so  Wereiiskiold's  illustrations  were 
the  first  reliable  artistic  representation  of  Norwegian  folk- 
life.  In  happy  fashion  he  has  dipped  down  into  the 
character  of  the  people  and  exhibits  the  figures  from  the 
tales  as  though  seen  by  the  eye  of  the  rustic  himself,  with 
his  notions  of  the  great  and  the  small,  the  fine  and  the 
funny,  with  his  fresh  humor  and  equable  judgment.  There- 
fore the  king  of  the  tale  appears  as  a  big-wig  in  dressing 
gown  and  slippers,  with  a  long-stemmed  pipe  in  his  mouth 
and  his  crown  askew.  The  princesses  are  metamorphosed 
into  country  gentlemen's  slender,  overgrown  daughters  in 
white  muslins,  and  the  palace  has  been  changed  into  a  spa- 
cious old  farm  establishment  in  eastern  Norway  with  its 
dinner-bell  belfry,  its  balconies,  and  its  huge  outbuildings. 
With  masterly  discretion  the  portrayer  of  rustic  life  in  these 
illustrations  harks  back  to  an  uncertain,  yet  not  very  distant 
past,  in  which  the  wonderful  events  of  the  tales  are  quite 
possible;  the  real  and  the  imaginary  counterbalance  each 
other  in  the  most  attractive  way.  And  about  these  scenes 
from  folk-life  he  has  made  a  sort  of  framework  of  fresh 
and  genuine  Norwegian  nature,  full  of  charm  and  sweet 
scents,  conceived  in  a  new  spirit — wood  and  heath,  lake 
and  swamp,  farmyard  and  field,  animals,  too,  in  the  forest 
and  about  the  enclosures — all  told,  those  summer  days  and 
those  winter  evenings  from  which  the  popular  tales  have 
drawn  their  poetry,  their  gay  humor,  and  their  goblin  fear- 
someness. 

During  his  studies  in  Munich  Werenskiold  saw  for  the 
first  time,  at  the  Exposition  of  1879,  the  French  naturalists. 
It  was  at  once  apparent  to  him  that  he  had  nothing  farther  to 
do  in  Munich.  He  finished  the  work  upon  which  he  hap- 
pened to  be  engaged,  packed  his  trunk,  and  set  out  for  Paris. 
It  was  in  January,  1881,  that  he  arrived  in  the  French 
capital.    Among  Norwegian  painters  who  had  preceded  him 


MoDPlkN   N()R\Vi:(.l\N   Airr  .^27 

he  loiiiul  1  Icycrilalil,  still  l)askin^  in  llic  renown  which  y\chini 
ami  I'.NC  had  hrouoht  him;  he  lOiind  Skrcdsxi^,  who  during 
that  yt'ar  made  a  success  witli  liis  lerme  a  Vcnoix,  and  with 
whom  he  associated  most;  he  lOiiiul  Uchermann,  Harriet 
Backer,  and  Kitty  KieUand;  among  later  comers,  Ulfsten 
and  Krohg.  Besides  he  found  here  almost  the  entire  group 
of  Swedish  artists  known  as  the  "Opponents,"  and  several 
Danes,  in  their  number  Joakim  Skovgaard,  with  whom  he 
formed  a  close  acquaintance. 

In  Paris  Werenskiold  felt  himself  strongly  drawn  to  the 
impressionists,  whose  work  he  saw  in  the  displays  of  art 
dealers  on  the  boulevards,  to  Manet,  Monet,  Renoir, 
Cezanne,  and  Pissarro.  In  a  private  letter  of  a  subsequent 
date  he  expresses  regret  at  not  having  sought  to  establish 
greater  intimacy  with  these  men  and  at  a  later  time  with 
Van  Gogh,  whose  brother  he  knew.  Outside  of  artistic 
circles,  too,  Werenskiold  received  deep  impressions  during 
those  years  in  Paris.  Both  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson  and  Jonas 
Lie  at  this  period  were  living  in  the  city  on  the  Seine,  and 
with  each  of  them  he  entered  upon  a  warm  and  lasting  at- 
tachment. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1883  Werenskiold  returned  to 
Norway  with  the  intention  of  remaining  there.  It  was  clear 
to  him  that  naturalism  alone  could  nationalize  Norwegian 
art  and  make  it  known  and  loved  at  home.  When  he 
reached  Christiania  with  a  completed  plan  of  campaign  for 
the  laborious  battle  in  behalf  of  a  national  art,  he  discovered 
Thaulow  and  Krohg  already  on  the  scene  and  the  struggle 
with  Kunstforeningen  well  under  way.  Now  the  contest 
between  the  artists  and  the  public,  or  rather  the  guardians 
of  the  public,  really  burst  into  full  blaze.  And  In  the  long 
run  It  became  clear  that  Werenskiold  was  the  actual  leader 
of  the  movement,  persevering  and  consistent  in  all  that  he 
did,  the  man  of  deep  convictions  and  with  the  will  to  achieve 
power. 

It  was  not  until  he  had  spent  three  summers  among  the 
country  people  at  Gvarv  In  Telemarken  during  the  years 
1 883-1 885  that  Werenskiold  found  himself  definitely  as  a 


528 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


M()I)I'-RN    NORWI'XilAX   ART  529 

painter.  I  Icrc  he  Imisiicd  such  mature  aiul  meritorious 
works  as  Telemarken  (iirls  and  A  Country  J'uiieral.  In 
these  pictures  and  in  his  illustrations  to  the  tales  he  has 
struck  the  vein  of  the  romantic  succession,  hut  in  a  modern 
and  realistic  spirit.  In  continuation  of,  and  yet  in  contrast 
to,  Tideniand's  sentimental  and  idyllic  portrayal  of  the 
farmer,  Werenskiold  has  given  In  his  Country  Funeral  a 
strictly  realistic  and  unsentimental  exposition  of  the  Nor- 
wegian rural  population,  keenly  characterized  from  the 
typical  anci  still  Individual  point  of  view.  It  is  a  hot  midday 
in  summer.  Over  the  blue  valley  the  air  Is  vibrating  with 
heat,  and  the  farmers  who  have  carried  the  coffin  stand 
blinking  at  the  sun  while  the  schoolmaster,  in  the  absence 
of  the  clergyman,  reads  a  passage  from  the  hymn  book.  No 
man  weeps,  no  face  betrays  positive  sorrow.  Stolid  and 
steady,  laconic  and  slow  of  movement,  these  rustic  Norwe- 
gians are;  no  emotion  Is  capable  of  disturbing  their  out- 
ward calm. 

Still  Werenskiold  Is  not  simply  the  merciless  realist  as  In 
this  picture.  In  his  landscapes  he  has  shown  himself  capable 
of  treating  nature  In  a  gentle,  mellow,  lyrical  manner.  One 
of  the  finest  of  his  paintings  Is  Summer  Night,  done  In 
1893.  Beneath  willows  and  alders,  on  the  margin  of  a 
placid  lake  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain  touched  with  the 
lingering  rosy  tints  of  the  heavens,  "the  bay"  and  "the 
black"  horse  are  grazing.  It  is  a  clear  night.  In  which 
sounds  would  be  carrying  far;  one  seems  to  hear  the  fresh 
cropped  grass  being  champed  between  the  jaws  of  the  horses, 
and  one  expects  to  hear  the  sound  of  the  bell  when  they  move 
their  feet  In  the  verdant  meadow. 

Werenskiold  Is  an  excellent  and  highly  esteemed  por- 
traitist. His  knowledge  of  men,  his  keen  vision,  his  zeal 
for  discriminating  observation  fit  him  for  portraiture.  In 
sobriety  of  characterization  and  solidity  of  execution 
Werenskiold's  portraits  are  superior  to  those  of  other  Nor- 
wegians, elder  or  younger.  As  for  impulsive  conception 
and  poetic  Interpretation  of  personality,  he  is  perhaps  sur- 
passed by  Edvard  Munch.    Nevertheless,  as  the  great  Nor- 


530 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


weglan  portrait  painter,  Werenskiold  is  known  far  beyond 
the  confines  of  his  own  country. 

The  Hvely  and  excellently  designed  portrait  of  Professor 
Helland  is  a  good  example  of  his  manner  during  the 
eighties.  From  the  early  nineties  there  is  the  soulful  like- 
ness of  Erika  Nissen  at  the  Piano.  Against  a  dream  land- 
scape of  old  faded  Gobelin  tapestry  the  pale  profile  of 
the  pianist  delineates  Itself  with  an  almost  painful  ex- 
pression of  the  nervous  intensity  of  her  art,  and  one  catches 

all  but  audibly  the 
deep  and  sonorous 
tones  streaming 
out  from  the  great, 
dark  mass  of  the 
piano,  which  forms 
a  background  to 
the  glowing  red  of 
her  velvet  gown. 

From  Weren- 
skiold's  brush  there 
are  two  portraits 
of  Bjorn  s  t  j  e  r  n  e 
B  j  o  r  n  s  o  n.  The 
first,  done  in  1888, 
is  now  in  the  Na- 
tional Gallery. 
Here  the  hands  In 
particular  are 
beautifully  paint- 
ed and  matchlessly 
characterized 
through  the  poet's  argumentative  tapping  with  a  paper-cutter 
upon  his  palm.  The  other,  from  the  year  1900,  is  in  the 
National  Gallery  of  Denmark.  Here  it  is  no  longer  Bjorn- 
son  the  fighter  and  agitator,  sharp  of  eye  and  impetuous  of 
hand;  it  is  Norway's  securely  enthroned  poet-king,  gazing 
proudly  out  from  his  own  domain,  conscious  that  the  very 
land  itself  Is  his  background. 


Portrait    of    the    Artist's    Mother,    by    Erik 
Werenskiold.     Privately  owned 


M()1)I<:rn  N()k\vi;(;iA\  y\k'i" 


531 


Henrik   Ibsen,   by  Erik  Weienskiold.     In   the    National 
Gallery 

Werenskiold's  most  eminent  portrait,  however,  is  the 
colored  drawing  on  canvas  which  he  made  in  1895  of 
Henrik  Ibsen.  The  subject  is  drawn  in  the  open  with  un- 
covered head  and  with  his  hands  behind  his  back.  The 
mouth  is  tightly  closed,  the  forehead  firmly  arched,  and  the 
mane  of  hair  rises  abruptly  from  the  abrupt  brow.  A  pene- 
trating oblique  glance   comes   through   his   spectacles   and 


532 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Ships    Returning    After    the    Battle    of    Svolder.     Illustration    for 
Snorre's  Sagas  of  the  Norse  Kings,  by  Erik  Werenskiold 


pierces  unforgettably  the  memory  of  the  beholder.  Behind 
him,  lightly  sketched,  is  a  winter  landscape  with  mountains 
of  cold,  pure  snow,  the  country  of  the  sparsely  peopled  ex- 
panses which  gave  birth  to  the  author  of  Brand — the  country 
of  his  own  clear,  frosty  thought.  Many  other  portraits  by 
Werenskiold  might  be  enumerated,  such  as  those  of  Edvard 
Grieg,  Fridtjof  Nansen,  Christian  Sinding,  and  the  bold 
likeness  of  his  friend  Fredrik  Collett,  produced  In  1894  and 
now  in  the  Swedish  National  Museum. 

Together  with  other  Norwegian  painters,  Egedlus, 
Munthe,  and  several  more,  Werenskiold  has  provided  the 
Illustrations  for  Snorre's  Sagas  of  the  Norse  Kings.  Among 
Werensklold's  contributions  are  many  that  are  magnificent, 
as  regards  both  narration  and  execution.  The  nature  of 
Norway  and  her  rustic  manners  are  joined  in  a  representa- 
tion which  has  the  most  striking  truthfulness.  Erik 
Werensklold's  talent  has  always  possessed  mobility.  In  his 
art  one  discerns  constant  struggle  and  exertion  of  energy. 
During  his  entire  life  he  has  been  in  process  of  development, 
has  made  experiments,  has  changed  his  theories  and  his 
technique.  Just  at  the  time  in  his  Munich  period  when  he 
had  found  his  classic  manner  he  broke  sharply  and  suddenly 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


533 


with  his  previous  acquirements,  went  to  Paris,  where  he  be- 
came a  professed  naturalist,  and  a  few  years  later  returned 
home  as  a  devoted  apostle  of  genuine  open-air  coloring. 

Yet  the  essential  and  decisi\'e  rc\'crsal  in  his  art  is  that  by 
which  he  made  a  conscious  transition  Irom  the  draughtsman's 
procedure  to  the 
painter's.  When 
h  i  s  eyes  were 
really  opened  to 
the  technique  of 
color  division  as 
practised  by  the 
impressionists,  to 
their  sense  of  tone 
and  totality  in  pic- 
torial effect,  he  vig- 
orously set  about 
revitalizing  and 
strengthening  his 
own  work  in  the 
same  direction. 
He  now  interested 
himself  In  the  sur- 
face effects  of  a 
picture  almost  as  much  as  in  its  theme,  made  experiments 
with  palette  knife  and  with  brush,  built  up  the  painting  with 
his  knife  or  knitted  it  together  by  means  of  short  strokes  of 
the  brush,  in  brief,  tried  the  most  varied  methods  of  attain- 
ing his  dream,  namely  pictures  in  which  values  predominate, 
which  have  compactness  and  weight  and  still  have  atmos- 
phere. The  change  may  be  dated  from  the  portrait  of  Head 
Master  Knudsen,  done  In  1903,  a  painting  no  less  remark- 
able for  psychological  power  than  for  color. 

Werensklold  Is  still  the  man  of  ardent  and  onesided  con- 
victions, always  wholly  committed,  heart  and  soul,  to  his 
altering  points  of  view.  Herein  lies  his  youthfulness,  which 
he  still  preserves  despite  his  silver  hair.  If  a  nature  like  his 
loses  Its  pliancy,  Its  day  Is  done;  It  becomes  barren,  doctrl- 


Portrait  of  Head  Master  Knudsen,  by  Erik 
Werenskiold 


534  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

naire,  rancorous.  Erik  Werenskiold  is  just  the  contrary 
of  all  these  things,  a  consoling  exemplar  of  rugged 
youth,  a  master  who  still  strives  with  himself  and  has 
faith  in  his  striving,  a  critical  mind  which  withal  has 
retained  its  receptivity  and  capacity  for  consecration. 
Beyond  question  he  is  the  greatest  moral  force  which 
remains  to  our  art  life  from  the  sturdy  generation  to  which 
he  belongs. 

To  these  leaders  among  the  open-air  naturalists, 
Werenskiold,  Thaulow,  and  Krohg,  is  to  be  added  as  the 
fourth  in  the  four-leafed  clover,  Gerhard  Munthe,  Norway's 
most  distinguished  landscapist  in  this  period  and  in  a  later 
period  the  imaginative  renewer  and  reviver  of  decorative 
art  in  the  Old  Norse  spirit.  Gerhard  Munthe  was  born  at 
Elverum  in  1849.  ^^^  father  was  a  district  physician  in 
this  heavily  wooded  region  of  eastern  Norway.  From  the 
distinctive  Eastland  country  in  Osterdalen  and  Trysil, 
Gerhard  Munthe  carried  away  his  earliest  impressions,  of 
broad,  tranquil  farmsteads  and  their  simple,  self-reliant 
population.  He  is  fond  of  the  spacious  freeholds,  with 
their  unrestricted  situation  on  the  slopes,  their  balconies  and 
storehouses  and  ample  barns  and  outbuildings  grouped  about 
the  farmyard,  with  a  wide  compass  of  cultivated  ground 
in  front  and  a  mixed  wood  of  spruce  and  deciduous  trees  at 
the  rear.  He  is  quite  at  home  on  a  farm  of  this  sort.  He 
has  wandered  through  the  overgrown  garden,  has  followed 
the  haymakers  to  the  most  distant  fields,  and  has  helped  to 
round  up  the  horses  in  the  enclosures.  He  is  familiar  with 
the  agricultural  implements,  counts  the  watchdog  his  friend, 
knows  minutely  the  appearance  of  everything  in  the  living- 
rooms  and  the  blue-painted  kitchen,  and  has  seen  the  hidden 
treasures  of  old  variegated  finery  in  the  gaily-painted  chests 
in  the  stabur. 

In  1874  Gerhard  Munthe  went  to  Diisseldorf,  where  he 
associated  a  great  deal  with  his  older  relative,  Ludvig 
Munthe,  without  really  being  his  pupil.  Yet  he  was  much 
influenced  by  Ludvig  Munthe's  masterly,  mature  facility  in 
coloring  and  by  his  commanding  personality  as  a  man  of 


MODERN  NORWFCilAN  ART  535 

the  world.  'IMie  art  of  Andreas  Achciihacli  also  left  a  decj) 
impress  upon  him. 

In  1877  Cierhard  Miinthe  left  Diisseldorf  and,  following 
his  kinsman's  athicc,  settled  in  Munich  for  the  purjiose  of 
painting  on  his  own  initiative.  There  are  lovely  things  from 
Munthe's  Munich  period,  done  in  dark  warm  tones,  softly 
harmonized  pictures  upon  simple,  realistic  themes.  Yet  it 
went  with  him  as  with  the  others:  he  became  fearful  of  re- 
maining too  long.  It  was  altogether  too  easy  to  paint  in 
Munich.  He  became  apprehensive  of  the  routine,  and  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  his  comrades  in  returning  home  for 
good  in  1883.  He  understood  that  the  path  to  self- 
expression  lay  through  the  naturalistic  method  of  working 
in  the  open.  His  first  attempt  was  the  Summer  Scene  from 
Eidsvold,  which  was  shown  at  the  Autumn  Exposition  of 
the  same  year. 

At  home  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  avoid  being  drawn 
into  the  battle  between  the  artists  and  the  public,  and 
Munthe  was  as  active  as  any  one  in  preaching  by  word  and 
deed  the  virtues  of  open-air  painting  and  naturalism.  To 
that  group  in  which  Ellif  Peterssen  was  the  most  tactful, 
the  noble  and  winning  personality,  In  which  Krohg  was  the 
element  of  uncompromising  force,  Werenskiold  of  persever- 
ing energy,  and  Thaulow  of  good  spirits,  Gerhard  Munthe 
contributed  the  brilliant  and  bizarre  fancy.  It  was  he  who 
cracked  the  saving  jokes,  and  who,  on  the  whole,  was  the 
waggish  fellow.  He  has  a  comfortable  way  of  talking,  all 
his  own.  He  likes  to  talk,  and  the  steady  flow  of  his  con- 
versation sparkles  with  happy  thoughts,  flashes  of  wit,  and 
paradoxes.  And  Munthe's  art,  like  his  manner,  has  a  sur- 
prising dual  quality. 

Out  from  a  fundamental  natural  simplicity,  the  soil  in 
which  good,  everyday  characteristics  thrive,  there  springs 
in  capricious  opulence  a  growth  of  marvellous  imaginings. 
In  this  placid  mind,  with  Its  strong  love  of  home.  Its  fidelity 
to  childhood  impressions,  its  delight  In  all  that  Is  comfort- 
able and  cosy  and  unsophisticated,  there  dwells  a  devil  of 
ingenuity  who  is  both  refined  and  coquettish,  and  who  oc- 


536 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


'#^ 


r^P- 


Evening  in  Eggedal,  by  Gerhard  Munthe.     In  the  National  Gallery 


casionally  is  permitted  to  disport  himself  at  will.  There  is 
a  suggestion  behind  it  all  of  dark  spacious  garrets  of  the 
imagination  whose  wonderful  furniture  and  goblin  in- 
habitants neither  the  artist  himself  nor  any  one  else  can 
fully  comprehend,  but  which  yet  provide  sustenance  for  his 
art.     It  was  not,  however,  till  a  late  period  that  Munthe's 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


537 


A  Farm  Garden,  by  Gerhard  Munthe.     In  the  National  Gallery- 


talent  for  the  fantastic  actually  emerged.  He  began  as  a 
landscape  painter  pure  and  simple,  and  he  remained  sin- 
cerely devoted  to  the  naturalistic  view. 

The  first  Important  evidence  of  the  transformation  In 
Munthe's  art  was  the  large  scene  from  Vik  in  Stange  which 
he  painted  In  1884  and  which  under  the  title  of  Haymaking 
now  hangs  In  the  National  Gallery.  It  made  a  great  im- 
pression by  its  sparkling  effect  of  light  when  it  was  shown 
at  the  Exposition  In  the  autumn  of  that  year.  In  the 
National  Gallery  he  Is  further  represented  by  a  smaller 
canvas,  painted  in  1888,  and  entitled  Evening  In  Eggedal. 
This  picture,  reproduced  here,  gives  a  wide  view  of  summer 
nature  In  Norway  across  meadows  and  fields  and  stabur 
and  dwellings  toward  the  blue  mountains  out  of  which  the 
river  winds  like  a  gleaming  ribbon  of  silver  in  the  twilight. 
Munthe's  masterpiece  In  landscape,  however,  Is  one  from 
the  year  1889  called  A  Farm  Garden,  which  is  also  repro- 


538 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Daughters  of  the  Northern  Lights  or  the  Suitors,  by  Gerhard  Munthe. 
In  the  National  Gallery 

duced  here.  Evening  Is  coming  on,  and  the  grey,  two- 
storied  farmhouse,  filling  up  the  entire  background,  shows 
in  dark  relief  against  the  sky,  A  man  stands  leaning  in 
through  an  open  window  and  talking  to  some  one  Inside. 
Under  the  immense  morel-tree  In  the  unkempt,  disordered 
garden  is  a  white  mare  with  sleepily  lowered  head.  There 
Is  nothing  more  In  the  picture,  but  that  Is  enough.  The 
hour  and  the  season,  the  country  and  the  particular  region 
in  It,  the  circumstances  of  human  life  and  an  animal  type 
are  all  represented  In  this  summer  evening  from  Hede- 
marken,  so  vividly  has  the  artist  seen  and  felt  and  rendered 
his  theme. 

Among  Munthe's  gifts  there  was  room  for  still  other 
possibilities  than  those  that  are  exemplified  In  his  naturalistic 
landscapes.  In  his  recollections  of  childhood  the  im- 
pressions from  nature  were  woven  together  with  impressions 
from  survivals  of  the  ancient  Inheritance  of  rustic  culture. 
He  had  a  feeling  for  the  Norwegian  character  of  the  arts  and 


MODERN  NORWF.GIAN  ART  539 


Odin.     Illustration  for   Snorre's  Sagas  of  the  Norse 
Kings.     By  Gerhard  Munthe 

crafts  of  the  farmer.  Sagas  which  he  had  read  in  early 
youth,  tales  and  songs,  jingles  and  verses  from  the  servants' 
room  and  the  kitchen,  the  rhythms  of  antique  lays,  the 
picturesque  refrains  of  ballads  had  in  the  course  of  time 
spun  a  tangled  and  variegated  web  in  his  imagination  which 
must  be  disengaged.  Splendid  colors  in  the  dresses  of  girls, 
in  the  flower-designs  upon  old  chests,  upon  pied  cupboards 
and  ale  tankards  and  naive,  venerable  tapestries  had 
fastened  themselves  in  his  memory  and  there  lingered  to 
demand  renewed  life  in  Norwegian  art.  Upon  such  im- 
pressions and  reminiscences  Munthe's  decorative  art  is  built. 
His  fantasies  on  Norse  popular  tales — The  Daughters  of 
the  Northern  Lights  or  the  Suitors,  Hel's  Horse,  "TroUe- 
botten,"  The  Sagacious  Bird,  Black  Apples — belong  to  a 
group  of  themes  in  which  the  arbitrary  chances  of  a  world  of 
fable  predominate.  Both  in  the  drawings  for  the  tales  and 
in  the  splendid  frieze  illustrating  the  old  popular  ballad  of 
Aasmund  Frsegdagjasver  we  are  in  touch  with  a  primitive 
Norse  set  of  Ideas.  Over  these  pictures  there  passes  a 
gusty  breath  from  glaciers  and  from  a  sea  that  Is  black  as 
ink.     Bears  rustle  through  the  leaves,  wolves  patter  about. 


540 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Horses  of  the  Waves.     Vignette,  by  Gerhard  Munthe 


and  ominous  night  birds  flap  their  wings.  Rusty  iron  gates 
creak  upon  their  hinges,  blood  courses  beneath  closed  doors 
and  drips  from  mirky  vaults.  And  the  rout  of  trolls, 
loathsome  and  lumpish,  undergo  their  metamorphoses. 
Yet  amid  all  of  this  devilry  there  is  a  dash  of  bucolic  humor 
and  animal  comedy;  amid  all  that  is  sinister  there  Is  some- 
thing that  is  idyllic  and  childlike  In  charm.  In  the  entire 
series  of  pictures,  moreover,  the  colors  are  positively  jubi- 
lant, strong  and  pure  and  refreshing  to  the  eye. 

Munthe's  greatest  achievement,  nevertheless,  Is  the  group 
of  drawings  for  Snorre.  From  the  fabled  world  of  the 
tales  he  has  made  his  way  to  the  solid  ground  of  history. 
He  has  had  recourse  to  the  unearthed  art  relics  of  the 
bronze  age.  He  has  proceeded  with  the  determination  of 
reaching  what  is  most  fundamentally  Norwegian  In  tradi- 
tion and  temperament;  and  his  intuitive  and  self-willed 
Intelligence  has  actually  found  the  way.  He  has  solved  his 
problem  with  the  sureness  of  genius.  It  is  not  merely 
somnabulistic  certainty.  Much  wide-awake  reflection  and 
thorough  study  precede  his  results.  This  fact  Munthe  has 
made  evident  to  us  in  a  few  thoughtful  and  brilliant  pages 
on  the  subject  of  Illustrating  our  primitive  past.  With 
regard  to  the  best  of  his  drawings  for  Snorre  one  has  the 
impression  that  they  could  not  have  been  done  otherwise. 

Munthe  understood,  as  Egedlus  also  understood,  that 
without  archaizing  nothing  was  to  be  accomplished.  All 
attempts  at  naturalism  would  Inevitably  glance  off  from  the 


moi)i:rn  norwecjIan  art  541 

remoteness  and  the  stony  solidity  of  style  in  the  text. 
Therefore  he  has  also  wisely  avoided  so  far  as  possible  the 
historical  events  themselves.  Seldom  has  he  drawn  scenes 
in  which  figures  appear;  and  in  the  exceptional  cases  his 
manner  is  broad,  decorative.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
has  woven  about  each  saga  and  particularly  about  the 
enigmatical  Skaldic  verses  an  ornamentation  of  freely  in- 
vented friezes  and  vignettes  which  serve  as  an  accompani- 
ment to  the  text.  Against  this  decorative  background,  in 
which  dragons  snort  and  spear-points  are  being  sharpened,  in 
which  arrows  darken  the  sky  and  blood  flows  in  streams, 
the  events  stand  out  in  larger  and  ruder  proportions. 


VI. 

OTHER  PAINTERS  OF  THE  SEVENTIES 
AND  EIGHTIES 

VIRTUALLY  all  of  the  painters  in  the  older  genera- 
tion of  naturalists  were  products  of  an  urban  cul- 
ture. Collett,  Thaulow,  Krohg,  Werenskiold, 
Munthe,  Diriks,  Gloersen  and  others  were  sons  of  men  in 
the  official  class  or  of  men  who  had  received  an  academic 
training.  For  their  own  part,  they  had  perhaps  finished  a 
Latin  school  or  taken  some  examination  or  other  at  the 
University.  The  only  farmer's  son  among  them  was 
Skredsvig.  The  more  remarkable  it  is  that  this  man  of 
country  origin  permitted  himself  to  a  greater  extent  than 
other  painters  in  the  group  to  be  overwhelmed  by  French 
influence.  The  grey  keynote  that  he  acquired  in  Paris  about 
1880  he  has  retained  throughout  life.  Christian  Skredsvig 
was  born  at  Modum  in  1854  of  a  family  in  straitened 
circumstances.  In  early  youth,  however,  he  received  assist- 
ance toward  developing  his  natural  aptitudes.  At  the  age 
of  fifteen  he  became  a  pupil  of  Eckersberg  in  Christiania ; 
later,  in  1875,  he  went  to  Munich,  where  he  remained  three 
years.  Skredsvig  has  a  lighter  and  more  diaphanous  color- 
ing than  other  young  Norwegian  painters  who  learned  the 
elements  in  German  schools.  The  Munich  brown  which 
many  of  them  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  getting  rid  of 
has  never  given  him  any  difficulty. 

In  1879  Skredsvig  came  to  Paris,  where  he  continued  his 
studies  and  associated  much  with  the  Swedish  artists  known 
as  the  "Opponents."  It  is  amusingly  characteristic  of  the 
Modum  boy's  stay  in  Paris  that  it  was  a  heavy  snowfall  that 
first  engaged  his  interest  there.     As  it  happens,  one  of  his 

542 


MODJ'IRN   NOKWKCjJAN   AR'l  543 

earliest  Krench  pictures,  done  in  1879,  is  entitled  Carting 
Snow  Along  the  Seine.  Yet  it  was  not  until  he  exhibited 
Ferme  a  Venoix  at  the  Salon  of  188 1  that  he  attracted 
general  attention.  He  received  that  year,  at  the  same  time 
as  Kroyer,  one  of  the  gold  medals  of  the  Salon;  the  paint- 
ing was  bought  by  the  French  government,  and  until  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  hung  in  the  Museum  at  Kheims. 

It  was  natural  that  Skredsvig,  poetical  and  idyllic  of 
temperament,  should  become  fond  of  Corot  and  Millet. 
The  soft  grey  keynote  in  his  color  is  probably  owing  in  large 
part  to  Corot.  Early  in  his  career  he  made  a  specialty  of 
painting  animals,  preferably  in  landscapes,  together  with 
the  herdsmen.  One  of  his  pictures  from  this  period  is 
October  Morning  in  Grez,  now  in  the  National  Gallery. 
The  canvas  gives  rather  a  French  effect  by  reason  of  its  flat 
French  landscape  beneath  a  milky  sky,  the  huge  Norman 
horses,  and  the  boy  on  horseback  meeting  the  shepherd  girl 
in  the  midst  of  her  flock,  the  boy  in  his  wide,  blue  blouse  and 
the  girl  In  her  Millet  capuchon.  Not  the  least  considerable 
part  of  the  French  impression  is  due  to  the  pale  grey  Salon 
tone  used  In  painting  the  picture. 

Skredsvig's  masterpiece  is  called  Ballade.  It  was 
executed  after  his  return  from  France,  and  is  now  in  a 
private  gallery  near  Christiania.  The  artist  once  saw  three 
of  the  sturdy  horses  of  Northern  France  standing  saddled 
outside  a  gate  on  a  grey,  cold,  windy  day  in  autumn,  and  was 
struck  by  their  lonely,  foresaken  appearance.  He  recalled 
the  ballad  refrain  about  the  riders  who  went  forth  to  battle 
and  whose  coursers  came  home  bloody  and  with  emptied 
saddles;  and  he  gave  expression  to  his  sentiments  in  this 
narrative  painting  with  the  animals  deserted  In  storm  and 
mire  on  the  highway  as  a  theme. 

When  Skredsvig  returned  to  Norway  In  1884  after  his 
French  apprenticeship  and  his  foreign  triumphs,  It  was  not 
long  before  the  rustic  lyricist  in  him  dominated  the  Paris 
artist.  Now  that  he  was  sure  of  himself,  he  carried  his 
art  back  to  the  soil  from  which  he  sprang,  to  the  memories 
of  his  childhood,  and  to  rural  life.    One  of  his  best  pictures 


544  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

in  the  National  Gallery  is  that  entitled  Pladsen,  presenting 
the  early  home  of  the  poet  Vinje.  He  has  also  painted 
Vinje  as  a  Shepherd  Boy,  and  the  poetic  picture,  The  Willow 
Whistle,  reproduced  herewith. 

Still  Skredsvig's  ambition  has  turned,  too,  toward  the 
larger  historical  compositions,  the  great  canvases  with  nar- 
rative themes  abounding  in  figures  or  with  symbolic  content. 


"Pladsen,"   Birthplace   of  the   Poet  Vinje,   by  Christian   Skredsvig.     In 
the  National  Gallery 

In  The  Son  of  Man  he  depicts,  in  agreement  with  von  Uhde 
and  Tolstoy,  the  return  of  the  Savior  in  our  own  time  as  a 
lay  preacher  and  miracle-worker  of  the  laboring  classes, 
who  wanders  about  from  one  region  to  the  other  performing 
good  deeds  and  supernatural  acts.  This  very  spacious  paint- 
ing has  fine  picturesque  details  and  is  obviously  the  fruit  of 
ardent  and  sincere  feeling;  the  total  effect,  nevertheless,  is 
rather  thin. 

In  Valdrisvisa  Skredsvig's  warmhearted,  imaginative  lyric 
note   resounds   full   and   rich.      Valdrisvisa   is   a   series   of 


M0DI:RN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


545 


The  Willow  Whistle,  by  Christian  Skredsvig.     Privately  owned 
in  Christiania 


aquarelles  which  he  composed  after  his  removal  in  1894  to 
Eggedal,  where  he  married  a  farmer's  daughter  and  built 
himself  a  home.      Here  he  painted  the   evening  calm  on 


%m-|g|y.^g^-^::...r    .\'.-'-W^ 


From  the  water-color  series  "Valdrisvisa,"  by  Christian  Skredsvig. 
In  the  National  Gallery 


546  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

slopes  and  mountain  ridges,  the  cries  and  calls  of  the  saeter 
girl,  and  the  dairy-maid's  life  among  her  cattle  in  barn  and 
field  and  meadow.  In  these  scenes  Skredsvig  gives  free 
play  to  his  copious  gifts  by  flashes  of  capriciously  changing 
fancy  in  which  there  is  a  touch  of  the  marvellous,  of  innocent 
jocosity,  and  kindness  of  heart — the  whole  upon  a  ground  of 
gentle  melancholy.  Just  so  is  the  man  himself  when,  in  a 
circle  of  comrades,  he  lets  himself  go  and  unbends,  sings 
his  Eggedal  ditties,  flings  himself  from  sadness  into  joviality, 
and  permits  all  of  the  chords  in  his  nervous,  sensitive  spirit 
to  vibrate.  It  should  be  mentioned,  finally,  that  Skredsvig 
in  later  years  has  gained  a  considerable  reputation  as  an 
author  in  his  native  land.  His  books.  The  Miller' s  Son  and 
Even's  Ho^necoming,  possess  an  originality  and  a  naive 
freshness  of  contents  and  language  that  have  won  the  ad- 
miration of  many. 

An  artist  who  belongs  to  the  same  generation  of  painters 
as  Werenskiold  and  the  others  of  the  Munich  school,  but 
who  has  followed  curious  paths  of  his  own,  is  Theodor 
Kittelsen.  Theodor  Kittelsen  was  born  at  Kragero  in  1857. 
His  father  died  comparatively  young,  and  Theodor  had  to 
contend  with  poverty  and  hardship  throughout  his  entire 
early  youth;  but  eventually  he  came  to  Munich,  where  he 
found  it  possible  to  spend  three  and  a  half  years  during  the 
most  fruitful  period  in  the  experience  of  the  Norwegians  at 
the  capital  of  Bavaria.  He  studied  at  the  Academy  under 
Lofftz  and  Lindenschmidt.  Later  he  went  to  Paris  on  a 
stipend,  but  was  not  content  to  remain  there;  and  the  next 
time  he  left  home  it  was  to  return  to  the  congenial 
atmosphere  of  Munich.  This  last  stay  covered  four  and 
a  half  years. 

Thereafter  he  made  his  permanent  residence  in  Norway. 
Characteristically  enough,  Kittelsen  began  as  a  markedly 
realistic  genre  painter  with  a  leaning  toward  social  subjects. 
That  was  during  the  years  when  the  ideas  born  of  Bjornson's 
and  Ibsen's  social  dramas  were  producing  their  strongest 
ferment  in  the  minds  of  men,  and  the  problems  of  society 
were  insistently  demanding  a  place  in  Art.     A  Strike  is  the 


Monr:RN  norwi^xjian  ari 


547 


Strike,  by  Theodor  Kittelsen 


title  of  Kittelsen's  first  large  figure  composition.  Before 
Christian  Krohg  or  any  one  else,  Kittelsen  here  takes  up 
a  theme  from  the  life  of  the  laboring  classes  and  places  the 
contrasting  social  forces  in  sharp  opposition  to  each  other. 
A  deputation  of  workingmen  has  brought  forward  Its  de- 
mands and  stands  respectfully  awaiting  the  decision  of  the 
two  employers  in  their  comfortable  office.  The  light  from 
a  large  hanging-lamp  falls  brightly  upon  the  masters  of 
Industry  and  upon  the  green  covering  of  the  table,  and  just 
glances  upon  the  group  of  employees,  who  lose  themselves 
In  the  farther  darkness.  The  seriousness  of  the  situation 
Is  evident.  The  argumentative  calm  of  one  of  the  em- 
ployers and  the  Ill-boding  nonchalance  of  the  other  hardly 
Indicate  that  the  strike  will  have  an  outcome  satisfactory 
to  the  workers.  The  picture  Is  rather  blackly  painted,  yet 
clearly  composed  and  handled  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a 
powerful  characterization  of  the  types.  Meanwhile  It  was 
in  an  entirely  different  field  that  Kittelsen  was  to  make  his 
reputation. 

Theodor  Kittelsen  is  by  no  means  an  ordinary  painter, 
but  an  extra-canonical  artist,  a  peculiar  dual  nature,  humorist 


548 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


and  lyrist,  yet  at  bottom  a  visionary.  It  was  in  Munich  that 
he  drew  the  imaginative  series  of  illustrations  for  the 
Homeric  poem,  The  War  of  the  Frogs  and  the  Mice,  a 
masterpiece  of  animal  comedy,  much  more  amusing  than 
Grandville.  In  a  later  series  of  animal  caricatures  which 
he  published  under  the  title,  Have  Animals  Souls  f  the  satire 
is  more  caustic,  although  still  comparatively  innocent. 
There  are  pages  here  so  diverting  or  so  grotesque  that  their 
creator  may  with  full  justice  be  designated  as  the  Oberlander 
of  the  North.  Not  until  one  comes  to  the  illustrations  for 
the  popular  tales,  however,  does  one  learn  to  know  Kittelsen 
the  humorist  in  all  his  ingenuity.  It  was  Werenskiold  who 
first  discovered  Kittelsen's  gifts  for  drawing  subjects  of 
this  kind,  and  secured  his  co-operation  in  illustrating 
Asbjornsen  and  Moe's  Tales  for  Children.  Their  col- 
laboration, covering  the  period  1 883-1 887,  began  in  Munich 
and  was  continued 
In  Norway,  notably  '' 
during  a  sojourn  at 
Taato  near  Kra- 
gero,  where  each  of 
the  two  produced 
his  most  admirable 
drawings.  It  was 
an  Ideal  combina- 
tion of  efforts,  in 
which  Werenskiold 
contributed  his 
solid,  penetrating 
realism  and  fine 
draughtsmanship 
and  Kittelsen  his 
fabulous  Imagina- 
tion and  gift  for 
expression. 

Kittelsen  is  by 
and  large  the  illus- 
trator of  tales  par 


^ 


Veslefiik  Meets  the  Beggar  Who  Asks  Him 

for      a     Penny.        Drawing     by     Theodor 

Kittelsen 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  549 


A  Forest  Path,  by  Theodor  Kittelsen.     Privately  owned 

excellence  among  all  of  those  who  have  done  such  work  either 
in  Norway  or  in  other  countries.  He  has  delineated  the 
entire  race  of  Norwegian  trolls,  those  of  the  mountain  and 
those  of  the  woods,  the  nixy  and  the  water-troll,  in  fact, 
all  the  goblins  and  demons  of  the  land.  How  ingeniously 
realistic  is  the  drawing  of  the  beggar  whom  Veslefrik  the 
Fiddler  met  on  the  mountainside  and  who  asked  him  for  a 
penny  in  God's  name!  Altogether  this  man  appears  to 
recognize  no  bounds  whatever  to  the  possibilities  of  repre- 
sentation.    He  can  depict  the  hen  mourning  and  weeping  in 


550  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  churchyard,  the  fox  preaching  in  ruff  and  cassock,  and 
the  rabbit  that  laughed  till  he  split  his  mouth  from  ear 
to  ear. 

Besides  being  the  master  of  grotesque  humor  and  fantasy, 
Kittelsen  is  notwithstanding  probably  the  most  sensitive  and 
the  most  lyrical  nature  poet  in  Norwegian  art.  For  a  period 
of  about  two  years  he  lived  on  one  of  the  lonely  Lofoten 
Islands  in  a  lighthouse  among  the  breakers,  companioned 
by  gulls  and  cormorants.  It  was  here,  in  the  course  of 
luminous  summer  nights  and  dark  winter  days  that  he 
reached  maturity  as  a  landscape  artist  and  poet.  He  has 
collected  his  impressions  from  these  days  of  isolation  In  the 
lighthouses  of  Rost  and  Skomvoer  under  the  title,  From 
Lofoten,  a  series  of  aquarelles  published  in  1890. 

Three  years  later,  in  1893,  ^^  ^^e  great  Exposition  in 
Christiania,  In  addition  to  his  caricatures,  his  rabble  of  trolls, 
and  the  wild  scenes  from  Lofoten,  he  was  able  to  show 
fourteen  excellent  aquarelles  from  his  childhood  home, 
Jomfruland.  The  drawings  were  at  once  bought  by  Olaf 
Schou,  during  those  years  our  sole  Norwegian  Maecenas, 
and  by  him  presented  to  the  National  Gallery.  The 
Jomfruland  series  is  the  maturest  fruit  of  Kittelsen's  talent. 
By  extremely  few  and  simple  means — pencil  and  water 
colors — he  has  perpetuated  a  sequence  of  distinct  and 
authentic  landscape  moods,  almost  all  of  which  are  captivat- 
ing by  reason  of  their  pristine  sentiment  and  naive  execution. 
Kittelsen  died  in  19 13. 

Harriet  Backer,  bom  at  Holmestrand  in  1845,  rn^Y 
doubtless  without  contradiction  be  called  the  master  among 
the  feminine  painters  of  Norway.  Her  specialty  Is  interiors, 
and  no  artist  in  our  country  has  managed  to  render  colors 
within  doors  more  delicately,  more  voluminously,  or  more 
thoroughly  harmonized  by  force  of  personality.  The  man- 
ner in  which  she  can  paint  light,  as  it  sifts  into  the  living- 
room  of  a  farmhouse,  flows  over  the  worn  surface  of  a  table, 
is  shattered  against  a  faded  wall,  glances  upon  a  face,  flames 
in  a  red  jacket,  and  finally  in  the  corners  of  the  room  sinks 
away  in  shadows  saturated  with  color,  is  not  excelled  by  any 


MODFRN  NORWFXilAN   ART 


5S1 


Paris    Interior   With    Young   Woman    Playing   the    Piano,    by   Harriet 
Backer.    In  the  National  Gallery 


Other  painter  In  the  land.  In  1874  Harriet  Backer  found 
herself  In  Munich,  where  she  spent  four  happy  years  In  the 
society  of  the  most  gifted  generation  of  painters  that  has 
gone  forth  from  Norway.  Here  she  met  at  the  very  outset 
Eillf  Peterssen,  Heyerdahl,  Werenskiold  and  Munthe, 
Skredsvlg  and  Kitty  Klelland. 

In  Munich  Froken  Backer  painted  several  significant  pic- 
tures, among  others  a  sixteenth  century  Bavarian  peasant 
Interior  showing  a  lacewoman  In  the  costume  of  the  period 
sitting  bowed  In  melancholy  thought.  This  painting,  called 
Solitude,  was  exhibited  at  the  Salon  of  1880,  received  an 
honorable  mention,  and  may  be  found  reproduced  In  the 
Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts  of  that  year.  As  it  happened, 
Froken  Backer  had  left  Munich  In  1878  in  order  to  make  use 
of  a  Norwegian  government  stipend  in  Paris.  Here  Bonnat 
became  her  teacher,  and  when  she  showed  him  as  an  example 


552 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Interior   from    Stange    Church,    by   Harriet   Backer.      In    the    National 
Gallery 

of  her  work  the  Bavarian  Interior  with  the  lacewoman  he 
pronounced  her  a  born  painter  who  would  some  day  do 
honor  to  her  native  land. 

Bonnat's  judgment  was  justified  In  the  event.  Froken 
Backer  Is  In  fact  the  one  among  the  feminine  artists  of  Nor- 
way who  Is  most  truly  a  born  painter,  and  even  In  the  ranks 
of  her  masculine  colleagues  she  maintains  a  high  standing. 
There  are  few  things  In  Norwegian  art  that  have  such  a 
degree  of  coherence  In  color  and  at  the  same  time  show  such 
delicate  sentiment  and  powerful  handling  as  distinguish 
the  best  of  her  Interiors,  as  witness  the  Brittany  Interior  In 
Rasmus  Meyer's  collection  at  Bergen  or  the  Peasant  Inte- 
rior In  the  gallery  at  Trondhjem  or,  to  continue,  the  beauti- 
ful picture,  done  In  1888,  of  a  young  lady  with  a  piece  of 
embroidery  in  her  hands  sitting  in  a  Paris  interior  with  chairs 
upholstered  in  blue  and  blue  curtains  at  a  window  filled  with 
flowers.  The  last  named  canvas  is  now  in  a  private  gallery 
In  Chrlstlania. 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  553 


Peat-bog    at   Jaederen,    by   Kitty   Kielland.      In   the    National 
Gallery 

Harriet  Backer  lived  in  Paris  ten  years,  ten  years  of 
glorious  study,  by  her  own  testimony.  In  1889  she  returned 
to  Norway  in  order  to  paint  nature  in  Norway  and  studies 
on  Norwegian  subjects.  During  recent  times  she  has  spent 
the  winter  in  Christiania  and  has  occupied  her  summers  in 
various  parts  of  Norway,  industriously  engaged  in  painting 
interiors  of  Norwegian  farmhouses  and  churches.  In  later 
years  she  has  been  specially  attracted  to  old  picturesque 
church  interiors.  The  grey  plastered  vault  of  an  ancient 
stone  church,  the  greenish  light  of  a  summer  day  without, 
shining  through  the  windows  of  the  choir,  the  dark  figures 
of  the  little  congregation  distributed  over  the  floor  spaces 


554 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  White  House  by  the  Water,  by  Kitty  Kielland.     Privately  owned 

or  kneeling  at  the  altar,  it  is  all  seen  with  a  vital  sense  for 
pictorial  effect  and  reproduced  with  untiring  care  and  truth- 
fulness in  which  there  is  no  manner  of  sacrifice  to  dryness 
and  pettiness.  Harriet  Backer  has  also  been  a  good  and 
persevering  instructor  of  younger  generations  of  Norwe- 
gian painters,  almost  all  of  whom  owe  to  her  the  foundation 
of  their  training. 

Kitty  Kielland,  a  sister  of  Alexander  Kielland,  was  born 
at  Stavanger  in  1843.  In  1873  she  came  to  Karlsruhe  as  a 
pupil  of  Gude,  but  two  years  later  she  removed  to  Munich 
and  joined  that  group  of  talented  painters  and  good  com- 
rades to  which  Harriet  Backer  also  belonged.  Here  Kitty 
Kielland  produced  as  a  beginning  her  first  still  life,  yet  as 
early  as  the  spring  of  1876  she  returned  home  in  order  to 
paint  nature  in  Norway.  In  her  own  country  she  found  at 
once  her  special  field.  The  early  studies  from  the  peat- 
bogs of  Jasderen  with  their  black,  swampy  earth  spreading 
for  miles  beneath  lofty,  marching  skies  have  the  character 
and  individuality  of  true  art.  One  of  her  pictures  from 
Jsderen  with  a  theme  of  this  sort.  Peat-bog,  now  in 
the    National    Gallery,    is    weighted    with   melancholy    and 


M0I)I:RN   NORWIXJIAN   ART  555 

majestic  loneliness.  Nc\cr  since  that  time  has  Kitty  Kiel- 
land  struck  so  deep  a  minor  note.  Still  she  has  often  come 
hack  to  the  pcat-ho^s  ol  Ja'deren  and  recorded  other  moods. 
Kitty  Kiclland  died  in  19  14. 

Another  able  portrayer  of  the  nature  of  Jaederen  is 
Nicolai  Ulfsten,  who  was  born  in  1854  and  died  in  1885. 
He,  too,  was  a  pupil  of  Gude;  later  he  studied  one  winter 
in  Paris,  and  in  1879  made  a  journey  by  way  of  Trieste  and 
V^enice  to  Egypt.  It  was  the  desert  sands  and  the  blazing 
sunlight  which  drew  him  thither.  Among  his  paintings  are 
A  Street  Scene  in  Cairo  and  A  Halt  in  the  Desert,  both  of 
which  are  now  in  the  Bergen  Galley.  His  eyes,  however, 
could  not  endure  the  blinding  sunshine,  and  he  had  to  turn 
his  course  homeward.  On  his  arrival  in  his  own  country  he 
settled  down  in  Jsederen.  Here  he  worked  intensely,  pro- 
ducing several  large  pictures  the  themes  of  which  are  drawn 
from  the  life  of  fisherfolk  and  from  the  natural  features  of 
the  region.  Later  he  removed  to  Christlania,  but  only  to  die 
of  consumption  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-one.  Ulfsten  has 
depicted  the  fisherman  of  Jasderen  in  sea-boots  and  south- 
wester,  in  his  boat  or  ashore,  fishing  for  roach  in  the  waters 
of  Stavanger,  seeking  shelter  in  the  smooth  anchorage  of  a 
harbor  of  refuge,  or  arresting  his  walk  along  the  beach  at 
the  sudden  discovery  of  a  dead  body  washed  into  the  shal- 
lows by  the  last  storm. 

Karl  Edvard  Diriks  was  born  in  Christlania,  1855.  After 
taking  the  examination  preliminary  to  matriculation  at  the 
University  Diriks  went  abroad  to  study  architecture;  in  the 
course  of  his  work  he  visited  Stuttgart,  Karlsruhe,  and  even- 
tually the  Bauakademie  in  Berlin.  Here  he  saw  much  of 
the  group  to  which  Krohg  and  Klinger  belonged,  and  at 
length  he  decided  to  forsake  architecture  in  favor  of  paint- 
ing. For  a  time  he  studied  In  Weimar,  but  returned  later  to 
Christlania,  where  he  made  his  home  and  continued  painting 
till  1882.  In  that  year  he  went  to  Paris,  and  fell  under  the 
influence  of  the  impressionists.  He  has  made  two  trips  of 
some  duration  to  Spain,  Southern  France,  and  Italy,  and 
since  the  late  nineties  has  resided  permanently  in  Paris. 


556 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Pier  in  a  Storm,  by  Edvard  Diriks.     Owned  in  Bergen 

In  spite  of  his  long  sojourn  abroad  there  is  in  reality 
nothing  of  the  European  cast  about  Diriks'  art.  On  the 
contrary,  he  has  in  recent  years  attracted  attention  among 
foreigners  as  a  peculiarly  Norwegian  type,  as  regards  both 
his  personality  and  his  art.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  detect  in 
his  paintings  any  evidence  of  his  architectural  beginnings. 
It  is  just  the  architectonically  constructive  or  draughting  ele- 
ment that  is  lacking  in  his  landscape  art.  For  that  matter, 
the  subjects  he  chooses  by  preference,  such  as  storm,  sleet, 
wind,  fog,  are  not  adapted  to  the  stricter  methods  of  design. 

Diriks  is  a  decided  impressionist,  and  his  work  as  a  whole 
stands  or  falls  according  to  the  intensity  with  which  he  is 
able  to  express  a  mood  through  color.  In  his  earlier  years 
he  was  closely  associated  with  the  youthful  Thaulow;  in 
certain  respects  he  was  also  influenced  by  Krohg.  It  has 
always  been  his  chief  aim  to  bring  pervading  atmosphere  and 
light  into  his  canvases.  Beyond  that,  Diriks  has  become 
more  and  more  a  painter  of  the  weather,  particularly  of  bad 
weather.  Atrocious  winter  weather  drifts  and  storms  and 
howls  and  whines  through  his  pictures.  There  is  everlasting 
slush  and  mud  and  mire  on  roads  and  piers,  and  fog  that  lies 
wallowing  above  crashing  drift  ice  In  the  harbor.     It  is  the 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


557 


From  Vestre  Aker,  by  Edvard  Diriks 

beloved,  inhospitable  winter  of  our  own  Norwegian  coast 
that  speaks  to  us  through  this  art,  and  therefore  we  love  It. 

Diriks'  pictures  have  of  late  years  attracted  considerable 
attention  in  Europe,  especially  in  the  radical  art  circles  of 
Paris.  It  is  probably  just  the  brutal  strength  in  his  paint- 
ings that  has  appealed  to  the  refined  Parisians  because  it 
carries  proof  of  real  temperament.  And  therefore  French- 
men have  honored  Diriks — the  painter  of  the  wind,  they  call 
him — much  more  than  have  his  own  countrymen.  Of  recent 
times,  during  which  Diriks  has  lived  continuously  in  Paris, 
he  has  of  course  treated  French  themes,  themes  of  a  wholly 
different  and  lighter  character,  as  witness,  for  example,  the 
large  sunny  canvas.  Isle  de  France,  in  the  National  Gallery. 

Intimately  allied  with  the  naturalist  Werenskiold  and  the 
landscapist  Munthe  we  find  Jacob  Gloersen,  the  painter  of 
the  forests  in  the  Eastland.  The  son  of  a  clergyman  in  Tele- 
marken,  he  was  born  at  Vinje  in  1852.  He,  too,  first  visited 
the  schools  of  Munich;  but  at  an  early  age  he  came  to  the 
conviction  that  the  right  thing  was  to  keep  in  immediate 
touch  with  nature  and  to  follow  it  alone.  These  principles 
he  faithfully  persevered  in  throughout  life.     The  sum  of 


558 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


MODERN   NORVVl<:(ilAN   Mil  559 

his  aesthetic  tenets  may  be  fornuihited  in  a  single  sentence: 
One  should  paint  nature  as  it  is;  yet  there  are  things  in  nature 
tiiat  arc  not  worth  painting.  Hunter,  lover  of  the  open,  and 
tenacious  pedestrian  as  he  was,  he  lived  for  the  most  part 
in  the  woods  and  among  the  mountains  and  so  became  the 
portrayer  of  the  spruce  forest  and  of  winter  in  the  inland 
regions  of  eastern  Norway.  His  pictures  bear  titles  such 
as  Winter,  Hauling  Timber,  The  Snow  Storm,  A  Thaw. 
The  line  picture,  Hunting  Woodcocks,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
National  Gallery.  Gloersen's  art  is  so  unaffected  and  sober 
that  his  paintings  at  times  narrowly  escape  photographic 
dryness.  Even  so  they  carry  the  appeal  of  truth  and  sin- 
cerity. Moreover,  if  he  lets  himself  go  and  uses  the  broad 
brush,  he  shows  a  fresh  and  flowing  style  equalled  by  few. 
Still  his  stroke  can  be  suave  and  careful.  Nothing  else  is  so 
soft  as  motionless  air  filled  with  falling  snow.  This  Gloer- 
sen  has  painted.     Jacob  Gloersen  died  In  19 12. 

Fredrik  Kolsto  was  born  at  Haugesund  In  i860.  At  the 
age  of  seventeen  he  came  to  Munich,  and  there  painted  in 
1880  his  first  genre  picture,  A  Norwegian  Fisherman's 
Home.  He  reached  maturity  so  early  that,  after  his  return 
to  Norway  the  following  spring,  he  was  able  during  the  sub- 
sequent summer  to  finish  the  large  painting  which  in  Its  way 
still  remains  his  masterpiece,  A  Stril  at  the  Bergen  Fish- 
market.  By  Its  realism  and  bold,  broad,  palette  knife  tech- 
nique the  picture  created  a  sensation  at  the  Exhibition  of  the 
same  year,  and  contributed  considerably  to  the  current  talk 
about  a  school  of  daubing.  After  a  sojourn  in  Paris  in  1885 
he  painted  a  Studio  Interior,  now  in  the  gallery  at  Trond- 
hjem,  which  probably  Is  the  best  work  he  has  done.  It  is  a 
thoroughly  impressionistic  canvas,  executed  with  the  extreme 
decomposing  technique  used  by  the  polntillists. 


VII 
THE  INTERMEDIATE  GENERATION 

THE  group  of  painters  who  received  their  initiation 
during  the  stress  and  struggle  of  the  eighties  has  been 
called  the  Intermediate  Generation.  Between  the  gen- 
eration of  the  seventies,  which  returned  home  from  Munich 
and  Paris,  and  the  generation  of  the  nineties,  which  again 
sallied  forth,  this  time  to  Copenhagen  and  Italy,  there  Is  the 
younger  company  of  naturalists  who  went  through  their 
apprenticeship  at  home  in  Chrlstiania,  mostly  under  Thau- 
low  and  Krohg.  Almost  all  of  the  painters  in  this  class  are 
to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  to  be  counted  as  colorists.  Their 
weakness  lies  throughout  in  draughtsmanship,  their  limita- 
tion in  an  imperfectly  developed  sense  of  style.  On  the  other 
hand,  freshness  and  Immediacy  of  conception,  a  natural 
vision  for  what  Is  pictorial,  and  boldness  of  treatment  have 
been  their  strength.  Certain  among  these  colorists  have 
used  to  advantage  the  Impressionistic  method  of  color  divi- 
sion and  attained  great  things  in  rendering  the  force  of  light. 
The  sunshine  of  the  pupils  often  caused  the  paintings  of  their 
masters  to  pale  by  comparison  at  the  exhibitions.  Just  as 
frequently,  however,  they  took  delight  in  dull  and  mournful 
harmonies  In  grey  and  blunt  colors. 

The  lives  of  the  poor  and  the  homes  of  the  lowly  have 
a  conspicuous  place  In  their  art.  When  It  comes  to  land- 
scapes, too,  they  avoid  all  ostentatious  beauty.  With  the 
democratic  thinking  of  the  time  they  are  In  close  sympathy, 
and  the  pessimism  of  the  eighties  throws  Its  shadow  over 
their  cheerfulness.  The  full  measure  of  opposition  and  con- 
tempt that  fell  to  their  share  goaded  them  to  bitterness  and 

560 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  561 

a  desire  to  offerul.  Still  a  beneficial  sense  of  standing  with- 
out the  pale  of  society  and  of  being  free  Bohemians  sustained 
their  longing  for  independence.  On  the  whole,  they  were 
most  successful  in  maintaining  themselves  artistically  so  long 
as  naturahsm  still  awaited  recognition.  The  wave  of  polit- 
ical and  intellectual  radicalism  that  swept  over  the  country 
bore  them  up.  When  the  reaction  came,  the  weaker  char- 
acters among  them  were  washed  into  back  eddies  and 
remained  floating  there.  Others  of  their  number,  more 
adaptable  and  fitted  to  survive,  shaped  a  fresh  course  at  the 
breaking  of  the  new  day. 

Among  the  intermediate  men  Wentzel  is  the  most  impor- 
tant and  the  first  who  assumed  a  leading  position.  Nils 
Gustav  Wentzel  was  born  in  Christiania  In  1859.  He  made 
his  debut  as  a  painter  with  a  picture  from  his  father's  car- 
penter shop,  which  the  principal  connoisseurs  of  Kunst- 
forenlngen  judged  to  be  too  realistic  and  therefore  refused 
to  show  at  the  exhibitions  of  the  society.  It  was  the  rejec- 
tion of  this  work  that  drew  attention  to  the  young  painter 
and  made  him  known,  for  the  refusal  of  his  picture  precipi- 
tated open  warfare  between  the  artists  and  the  reactionary 
directors  of  the  society.  And  it  was  on  this  occasion  that 
the  artists  In  1882  Instituted  a  systematic  strike  against 
Kunstforenlngen,  which  lasted  about  two  years  and  resulted 
in  victory  for  the  artists. 

Wentzel's  masterpiece.  The  Breakfast,  now  in  the  Na- 
tional Gallery,  is  from  the  same  year,  1882.  The  picture  is 
the  most  skilfully  painted  and  the  most  authentic  example 
of  milieu  portraiture  In  Norwegian  art.  With  a  keenness 
of  vision  that  captures  all  details  the  artist  gives  us  a  glimpse 
of  a  worklngman's  simple  home  in  Its  morning  neglige.  The 
room  with  its  lilac-grey  wallpaper,  the  woman  In  her  night- 
dress cutting  bread,  the  boy  gulping  coffee  from  a  cup  while 
holding  a  piece  of  bread  and  butter  In  his  hand,  the  break- 
fast table  without  a  cloth,  the  sooty  copper  kettle  and  the 
flowered  dishes — it  Is  all  there  and  It  is  all  presented  with 
brilliant  verisimilitude.  Further,  the  Interior  revealing  the 
trundle  bed  packed  with  bedclothes,  the  photographs  on  the 


562 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Breakfast,  by  Nils  Gustav  Wentzel,  li 


In  the  National  Gallery 


wall,  the  skirt  tossed  over  the  stove,  and  the  view  of  the  side 
room  with  its  painted  shade  through  which  the  morning  sun- 
light falls  coldly — the  whole  is  reproduced  with  intense  love 
of  the  theme  and  with  vivid  delight  in  the  material  itself. 
The  coloring,  as  well,  shows  an  admirable  mastery  of  the 
subject. 

Three  years  later  Wentzel  painted  a  new,  a  larger.  Break- 
fast Table,  which  also  is  in  the  National  Gallery.  The 
artist  had  in  the  meantime  been  abroad,  had  visited  Paris, 
and  had  seen  the  impressionists.  He  had  developed  in  tech- 
nique and  had  strengthened  his  perception  of  color.  Every- 
thing which  in  his  first  Breakfast  Table  was  pettily  conceived 
or  pedantically  executed  because  the  painter  was  blinded 
through  staring  at  details,  is  here  spacious,  broad,  pictur- 
esque. As  a  whole  It  is  one  of  the  most  vigorously  painted 
canvases  In  Norwegian  art  of  the  eighties.  A  working- 
man's  little  family  is  assembled  about  the  breakfast  table 
on  a  winter  morning  beneath  a  lighted  lamp.  The  charac- 
terization of  the  figures  Is  excellent,  the  story  is  told  with 
truth  and  sincerity,  and  the  small  fairhaired  girl  kneeling 


MODKRN  NORWFXiTAN  ART  5r,3 


The  Confirmation  Party,  by  Nils  Gustav  Wentzel.    In  the  National  Gallery 

half-dressed  on  a  chair,  clad  in  a  red  skirt  and  a  white 
chemise,  is  a  fascinating  piece  of  painting.  The  great  value 
of  the  picture  lies,  however,  in  the  dexterity  with  which  the 
twofold  light  is  managed,  the  conflict  between  the  warm 
orange  tones  from  the  lamplight  and  the  cold  blue  shadows 
and  reflections  from  the  morning  light  that  sifts  in  at  the 
window  behind  the  lowered  shade  on  which  is  pictured  Our 
Savior's  Church.  It  is  excellent  painting  by  a  young  master, 
rich  with  promise  for  the  future. 

Unfortunately  it  cannot  be  said  that  Wentzel  has  fulfilled 
this  promise  in  his  later  production.  He  has  painted  several 
good  interiors  from  the  living-rooms  of  farmhouses  with 
country  people  about  the  table,  and  the  like.  He  has  also 
painted  figures  in  the  open,  as  in  the  large  picture  called 
Rural  Dance  in  Saetersdal.  Yet  not  even  the  best  of  these 
paintings  approach  his  breakfast  pieces  in  pictorial  quality. 
Still  less  valuable  are  his  many  hastily  executed,  roughly 


564  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

handled  landscapes,  particularly  winter  scenes.  The  narrow 
circumstances  of  art  in  Norway  compelled  him  to  descend 
to  production  in  mass.  For  a  tim.e  his  work  even  degener- 
ated into  inexcusable  daubing,  altogether  unworthy  of  his 
great  native  talent.  Meanwhile  the  canvases  by  which  he  is 
represented  in  the  National  Gallery,  the  two  breakfast  pic- 
tures and  the  splendidly  told,  sedulously  treated  figure  com- 
position, The  Confirmation  Party,  dating  from  1887,  be- 
sides two  or  three  other  capable  performances  from  his 
earlier  period,  will  always  assure  an  honorable  place  for 
Nils  Gustav  Wentzel  in  the  history  of  Norwegian  painting. 

At  Wentzel's  side  stands  Eyolf  Soot,  who  was  born  in 
1859.  -H^is  mother,  Birgitte  Lie,  was  a  sister  of  Erika 
Nissen,  and  was  herself  a  gifted  pianist.  Eyolf  Soot  spent 
his  early  boyhood  in  America,  but  after  the  death  of  his 
father  the  family  returned  to  Norway.  He  received  his 
first  training  in  Christiania ;  later  he  studied  under  Krohg's 
teacher  Gussow  in  Berlin,  Soot  has  also  been  in  Paris, 
where  he  worked  in  Bonnat's  atelier. 

Soot's  production  has  not  hcen  ahundant;  but  he  has 
brought  out  certain  exceptionally  soliJ  things.  The  little 
picture  from  the  year  1886.  which  he  has  called  The  Bridal 
Procession,  In  which  one  does  not  see  the  procession  at  all 
but  only  the  reflection  of  It  in  the  observant  faces  of  two 
children  on  a  balcony,  who  follow  the  absorbing  pageantry 
with  their  eyes.  Is  painted  in  brilliant  sunshine  and  still  de- 
spite the  light  effect  has  a  fine  greyish  tone.  The  reputation 
that  he  gained  by  this  small  work  Soot  has  farther  Increased 
by  two  or  three  other  sunlight  scenes,  and  especially  by  the 
excellent  portrait  of  Jonas  Lie  and  his  wife  and  the  large 
figure  composition  entitled  Welcome,  both  of  which  are  now 
in  the  National  Gallery. 

Soot's  contribution,  though  not  very  copious,  gives  the 
impression  of  being  the  result  of  a  tremendous  exertion  of 
energy  by  means  of  which  all  that  Is  frolicsome  and  restless 
in  his  temperament  has  been  subjugated  to  a  will  that  Is 
determined  to  see  things  soberly.  Nevertheless,  the  unquiet 
spirit  crackles   and  sparkles   through  the  pigments.     Soot 


MODKRN  NORWI'XilAN   AIM 


56: 


Jonas   Lie    and    His   Wife,    by   Eyolf   Soot. 
National  Gallery 


In   the 


has  the  blood  of  the  Lies  in  his  veins.  His  mother  and  Jonas 
Lie  were  cousins,  and  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  the  half- 
tamed,  runaway,  visionary  temperament  that  gives  to  Jonas 
Lie's  style  its  polychromatic,  impressionistic  vitality  is  dis- 
coverable once  more  in  the  coloring  of  Soot.  His  themes 
may  be  simple  enough,  and  may  even  have  an  everyday  cast. 
A  door  opens,  and  a  youthful  peasant  couple  steps  into  the 
room  and  bids  the  aged  mother-in-law  good-day — the  wife 
first,  the  husband  after  her.  They  shake  hands  in  the  slow, 
measured  fashion  of  country  people.  Yet  the  way  in  which 
the  incident  is  narrated  in  color  is  positively  ebullient;  and 
through  the  open  door,  border.ed  by  the  dark  shadow  tones 
of  the  balcony,  we  catch  a  glimpse,  behind  the  two  who  are 
coming  in,  of  a  lush  landscape  in  summer  green  lying  bathed 


566  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

in  glittering  sunshine  and  of  two  diminutive  men  walking 
far  down  in  the  fields.    The  contrast  gives  an  excellent  effect. 

The  Jonas  Lie  portrait  is  also  good;  it  presents  very  natu- 
rally an  episode  from  daily  life.  The  novelist  is  sitting  with 
his  legs  crossed,  reading  a  paper  before  a  white  lacquered 
door  in  his  apartments  in  Paris.  His  wife  comes  in  and 
bends  over  him  to  ask  a  question  about  something  or  other. 
He  lowers  the  paper  and  lifts  his  head  in  an  interrogating 
attitude,  yet  with  an  absent  gaze  behind  his  eye-glasses.  The 
long,  sinewy,  nervous  hand  rests  idly  on  the  arm  of  the  chair. 
The  whole  presents  a  picture  of  a  man  who  lives  his  own 
individual  life  of  imagination  and  thought,  far  from  the 
world.  The  coloring  is  strong  and  animated,  impression- 
istically  decomposed  in  a  manner  hitherto  unknown  in  Nor- 
wegian painting,  handled  with  a  sensitive  and  as  it  were 
quivering  touch.  Soot's  more  recent  production  unfortu- 
nately cannot  be  said  to  have  fulfilled  the  great  promise  of 
his  youthful  works  in  the  National  Gallery. 

In  the  first  rank  of  the  younger  company  of  naturalists 
who  followed  upon  the  master  group  of  the  eighties  headed 
by  Krohg,  Halfdan  Strom  took  a  place  at  his  initial  appear- 
ance. Strom  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1863.  At  an  early 
age  he  journeyed  to  Munich,  where  he  worked  about  half  a 
year  at  the  Academy,  but  soon  returned  to  Christiania  and 
continued  painting  on  his  own  score.  He  was  still  under 
twenty  when  he  showed  his  first  picture,  and  from  1886  he 
went  on  exhibiting  each  year  at  the  Autumn  Exposition  until 
he  set  out  for  Paris  in  1892  in  order  to  prepare  his  ground 
anew  under  the  direction  of  Roll.  Like  Wentzel,  Strom 
began  by  practising  the  principles  of  naturalistic  painting 
upon  his  Immediate  surroundings.  In  the  corners  of  small 
workshops,  in  the  doorways  of  cramped  living-rooms,  in 
third-class  cafes,  and  in  narrow  streets  Inhabited  by  working- 
men  he  set  up  his  easel;  and  he  drew  his  themes  from  the 
veriest  reality.  Examples  are  his  Tailor's  Shop,  dated  1886, 
A  Shoemaker's  Shop,  1887,  and  In  the  Restaurant,  1888. 

Furthermore,  when  he  spent  the  summer  in  the  country, 
unlike  the  others  he  did  not  scour  the  open  for  beautiful  sub- 


^K)l)l^kN   NOKWrXilAN   ART  567 

jccts.  RatluM-  he  Insinuated  himscll  into  the  men's  (|uarters 
during  tlie  niidchiy  hour  of  rest,  into  tiie  rank,  close  air  where 
ir.en  with  hca\y  linihs  sprawled  upon  the  beds,  sleeping  and 
puffing  and  snoring.  lie  delighted  in  turning  his  artist's 
e\e  toward  an  interior  of  this  kind,  illuminated  by  the  cold 
blue  light  filtering  in  from  the  north  through  small  muddied 
window  panes.  Such  surroundings  had  for  him  a  certain 
mood  and  a  finely  adjusted  beauty  of  color.  A  case  in  point 
is  his  Midday  Rest,  done  in  1890,  and  now  in  the  Gallery 
in  Venice. 

Strom's  principal  work  from  this  earlier  period  is  never- 
theless The  Restaurant,  now  in  the  National  Gallery.  When 
this  canvas,  with  its  life-size  figures  from  the  cafe  of  the 
Workingmen's  Society,  was  shown  at  the  Autumn  Exposi- 
tion of  1888,  it  was  received  with  decided  Ill-will.  The  press 
and  the  public  were  as  one  In  rejecting  art  of  so  low  an  order 
and  on  themes  so  commonplace.  The  selfsame  picture  was 
exhibited  at  the  International  Exposition  In  Munich  of  1901, 
was  there  awarded  a  gold  medal,  and  now  occupies  a  place  of 
honor  in  the  National  Gallery.  The  painting  deserves  nothing 
less.  It  is  one  of  the  most  promising  and  most  mature  works 
from  the  hand  of  a  young  artist  that  has  ever  appeared  In 
Norway.  The  characterization  of  the  figures  is  superb, 
whether  one  looks  at  the  big,  clumsy  waitress,  the  flirtatious 
cavalier  leaning  over  the  counter  with  his  top  hat  pushed 
back  on  his  head,  or  the  grey,  starveling  boy  who  lolls  on  a 
stool  in  the  foreground,  munching  a  thick  slice  of  bread  and 
butter.  The  coloring  of  the  picture  Is  excellently  managed 
by  means  of  deep  grey,  brownish,  and  yellow  tones.  The 
piece  shows  such  maturity  as  a  pictorial  achievement  that 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  it  could  have  been  done  unless 
the  artist  had  previously  seen  Manet  and  the  other  modern 
Frenchmen.  Yet  It  was  not  until  the  following  summer 
that  Strom  was  enabled  to  make  his  first  little  journey  to 
Paris  on  the  stipend  of  250  kroner,  his  sole  perquisite  from 
the  picture. 

Things  of  this  sort  Strom  painted  preferably  during  his 
youth.     He  was  no  parlor  naturalist.     Cold,  grey,  pesslmis- 


568 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


tic  were  his  canvases,  with  a  touch  of  blue  frost  in  the 
coloring,  with  the  merciless  light  of  common  day  upon  nar- 
row circumstances  and  daily  toil.  There  was  in  Strom 
the  metal  of  a  socialistic  painter.  He  had  just  the  right 
acridity  in  the  pigments  and  never  the  slightest  concession  to 
lukewarm  bourgeois  notions  of  the  beautiful,  the  attractive. 
Nevertheless,   Strom   did  not  become  a   socialistic  painter. 


In  the  Restaurant,  by 


In  the  National  Gallery 


MO|)i:kN   NOkWFXilAN   ART 


569 


Under  the  Pines,  by  Halfdan  Strom.     In  the  National  Gallery 

Apparently  missing  among  his  gifts  was  that  stiff  steel  spring 
that  pushes  a  work  to  the  very  end,  and  makes  of  the  artist's 
life  one  single,  inflexible  effort  directed  by  consciousness  of 
a  fixed  purpose. 

He  left  Norway,  came  under  the  influence  of  French 
Salon  art,  and  in  1892  made  use  of  a  larger  stipend  in 
studying  under  the  guidance  of  Roll.  This  French  artist 
stamped  an  ineradicable  impression  upon  Strom,  not  least 
through  his  personality.  Roll,  too,  had  begun  as  a  socialistic 
painter.  His  Strike  in  a  Mine  Is  a  celebrated  picture  from 
the  eighties,  bearing  the  stamp  of  Zola's  social  view  of  art; 
but  in  time  Roll's  work  became  lighter  and  more  insouciant, 
even  approaching  a  noisy  expression  of  the  joy  of  life.  Open 
air,  sunshine,  green  meadows  and  spring  foliage,  nude 
women,  laughing  nymphs,  and  desirous  fauns  dance  over  his 
canvases.  His  method  also  changes,  and  becomes  broad, 
light,  superficial. 

These  qualities  were  in  part  communicated  to  Strom's 
art,  and  they  altered  Its  character.     Thereto  must  be  added 


570  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

personal  experiences — wedded  happiness  and  family  life. 
His  production  showed  a  sudden  reversal,  and  became  an 
actual  flight  from  poverty  and  the  proletarian  world  and 
the  shabby  restaurants.  Now  it  grew  to  be  rather  a  glorifi- 
cation of  woman  and  of  home.  Sunshine  and  summer  and 
children,  maturity  and  motherliness  in  a  beautiful  woman 
— these  are  the  constantly  recurring  themes  for  a  period  of 
years.  Technically,  too,  his  pictures  are  changed,  his  brush 
has  taken  on  a  dashing  and  sweeping  stroke,  now  and  then 
approaching  superficiality,  or  he  leans  toward  soft,  subdued, 
refined  harmonies  like  those  cultivated  by  Thaulow. 

Strom's  best  painting  from  this  tim^e  is  without  much  doubt 
The  Young  Mother,  which  was  bought  for  the  Luxembourg, 
an  intuitive  seizing  upon  the  subconscious,  vegetative  soul 
life  of  woman  in  the  office  of  motherhood,  executed  with 
tender  feeling  for  the  subject.  Strom's  later  work,  in  which 
there  is  a  large  number  of  portraits  to  order,  has  been  of 
inconstant  value.  Occasionally  it  has  tended  toward  soft- 
ness and  blandness.  Yet  suddenly  he  takes  a  fresh  grip 
and  by  great  expense  of  energy  produces  a  larger  and  more 
serious  performance  which  once  more  brings  his  original 
and  ample  talents  into  notice.  Such  is  the  piece  entitled 
Under  the  Pines,  done  in  1908,  and  now  in  the  National 
Gallery. 

Since  191 1  Strom  has  been  actively  associated  with  Krohg 
as  a  professor  at  the  little  Academy  of  Painting  which  the 
government  finally  has  allowed  to  our  art  life  and  which  is 
being  conducted  with  very  humble  means  in  Christiania. 
Strom  has  undoubtedly  given  much  of  his  strength  to  this 
teaching  service,  in  which  he  is  truly  zealous.  Furthermore, 
a  good  part  of  his  time  has  been  taken  up  with  various 
positions  of  public  trust  in  our  art  life,  which  his  inter- 
mediate station  between  the  parties  has  frequently  assigned 
to  him.  Thus  for  several  years  he  has  been  reelected  as  a 
member  of  the  board  of  directors  in  the  Society  of  Artists, 
of  the  juries  at  the  annual  exhibitions,  and  of  the  purchasing 
committee  of  the  National  Gallery. 

Among  the  painters  belonging  to  this  group  of  naturalists 


MODERN  NORWECilAN  ART 


371 


The  Pavilion  After  Snowfall,  by  Jorgen  Sorensen.     In  the  National 
Gallery 

may  be  enumerated  also  Jorgen  Sorensen,  Sven  Jorgensen, 
Kalle  Lochen,  Signe  Scheel,  Marie  Tannaes,  Jacob  Bratland, 
and  Gudmund  Stenersen.  The  most  gifted  of  the  land- 
scapists  who  followed  the  banner  of  open-air  naturalism  and 
gathered  about  Thaulow  at  Modum  was  Jorgen  Sorensen, 
who  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1861.  His  production  has 
been  fluent,  he  has  painted  many  things,  and  always  after 
nature.  His  most  important  picture,  called  February,  2° 
Centigrade,  Vestre  Aker,  done  in  1887,  now  hangs  in  the 
National  Gallery.  The  title  may  appear  affected,  but  is 
in  reality  very  appropriate  as  an  indication  of  the  character 
of  the  piece,  with  such  fineness  have  the  shadings  in  the 
mood  of  this  winter  day  been  observed  and  with  such  pre- 
cision and  truth  have  they  been  reproduced.  In  just  this 
manner  the  frozen  roadway  crunches  under  foot;  just  so  a 
leafless  tree  delineates  itself  against  the  sky  in  the  clear  and 
delicate  atmosphere  of  winter,  and  just  so  palely  falls  the 
sunshine  with  blue  shadows  upon  patches  of  snow  and  upon 


572  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

yellow  tussocks  along  the  road  skirting  the  parsonage  of 
Vestre  Aker  on  a  beautiful  day  in  February  when  light  frost 
gives  a  tang  to  the  air.  Here  naturalism  has  reached  the 
goal.  It  is  impossible  to  go  farther  than  this  in  the  actual 
imitation  of  nature  and  In  expressive  sincerity. 

Related  to  this  picture,  but  lighter  and  more  brilliant,  is 
the  other  winter  scene  by  Jorgen  Sorensen  In  the  possession 
of  the  National  Gallery,  The  Pavilion  after  Snowfall.  The 
old  Empire  summer  house  is  lying  like  a  golden  Greek 
temple  beneath  snow  and  sunshine  In  the  middle  of  the 
garden  of  an  old  country  seat  In  the  environs  of  Christiania. 
The  contrast  between  the  antique  architectural  forms  and 
the  half  impressionistic,  modern  style  of  painting  has  a 
charm  of  its  own;  and  the  coloring  is  diaphanous  and  light 
as  in  an  early  Sisley  or  Pissarro. 

Jorgen  Sorensen  has  also  executed  with  true  feeling 
summer  landscapes  from  the  Eastland  on  a  small  scale, 
watercourses  with  grist  mills,  and  the  like.  As  a  painter  of 
winter  scenes  he  stands  out  as  the  best  pupil  of  Thaulow, 
and  sometimes  excels  his  master  In  sincerity  and  strength 
of  tone.  Now  and  then  his  talent  approaches  the  vein  of 
Gerhard  Munthe  in  the  green  summer  pieces.  After  an 
Individual  and  personal  fashion  he  combines  the  qualities 
of  these  two  masters.  The  artistic  life  of  Jorgen  Sorensen, 
however,  was  not  of  long  duration.  He  was  a  cripple,  his 
health  was  frail,  and  he  soon  succumbed.  Edvard  Munch, 
a  friend  of  his  youth,  has  painted  his  portrait  The  large 
soulful  eyes  speak  Impressively  fromx  the  open  countenance 
with  Its  gentle  and  sensitive  features.  The  portrait  may 
be  seen  in  the  National  Gallery.  Jorgen  Sorensen  died  in 
1894,  and  In  his  death  Norwegian  painting  suffered  a  real 
loss. 

Sven  Jorgensen  was  born  In  Drammen  In  1861,  and  dur- 
ing his  early  years  studied  both  in  Munich  and  In  Paris. 
Before  and  also  after  his  stay  abroad  he  has  lived  at  Slagen, 
a  fishing  village  near  Tonsberg  on  the  Christiania  fjord. 
Among  the  fishermen  and  farmers  living  there  In  humble 
circumstances  he   found   abundant  material   for  his   simple 


MODKRN   NORWEGIAN  ART 


573 


Unemployed,  by  Sven  Jorgensen.     In  the  National  Gallery 


and  intimate  treatment  of  life.  His  pictures  bear  titles 
such  as  Unemployed,  The  Widow,  Religious  Devotion, 
The  Son,  Departure  from  Home,  and  others  of  the  kind. 
Quite  evidently,  the  titles  are  like  Tidemand's.  The  pic- 
tures decidedly  are  not.  Sven  Jorgensen's  view  of  life  is 
by  no  means  gay;  nor  is  it  bitter.  A  gentle  resignation 
speaks  through  his  art.  Even  when  he  portrays  an  unem- 
ployed man  sitting  in  the  midst  of  his  family  with  idle  hands 
and  dully  gazing  eyes,  there  is  no  really  didactic  tendency 
in  the  painting.  And  he  has  been  able  to  picture  the  widow 
and  her  children,  gathered  about  a  dish  of  herrings  and 
potatoes,  with  such  warm  sympathy  and  such  equipoise  of 
mind  that  a  tinge  of  good  fortune  actually  seems  to  illumine 
the  brave  struggle  against  poverty  that  is  being  waged  in 
the  crowded  cottage. 

Sven  Jorgensen's  art  is  unpretending  as  his  themes.  No 
creative  delight  in  the  material  itself  casts  a  gleam  about  It, 
as  in  the  case   of  Wentzel.      Still   his  unostentatious  and 


574  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

indigent  orchestration  is  by  no  means  lacking  in  color 
quality.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  almost  always  expressive, 
homogeneous  with  the  subject,  and  a  vehicle  of  the  mood. 
In  linear  construction  Jorgensen's  pictures  are  the  strongest 
that  have  come  from  this  group  of  painters.  They  are  not 
merely  casual,  more  or  less  engaging  excerpts,  but  well 
planned  and  built  up  from  within. 

Among  the  youthful  naturalists  of  the  epoch  none  was 
more  notorious  for  a  kind  of  pettifoggery  than  Kalle 
Lochen,  who  was  born  in  1865.  Canvases  such  as  After  a 
Sleepless  Night  and  From  My  Window  irritated  the  better 
part  of  the  public  and  incensed  the  press,  both  by  their 
themes  and  by  their  dashing,  reckless  handling.  Yet  his 
best  pictures  approached  Munch's  in  simplicity  and  refine- 
ment of  coloring. 

An  artist  with  true  and  fine  gifts  for  color,  though  with 
a  limited  technique,  is  Signe  Scheel.  Behind  her  heavily 
laboring  brush,  which  seduously  heaps  up  treasures  of  shad- 
ing, one  discerns  a  delicate  and  shy  womanliness.  In  1896 
she  showed  her  first  picture  of  Importance,  entitled  Behold, 
I  am  the  Handmaid  of  the  Lord,  In  which  there  are  traces 
of  cross  Influences  from  old  Italian  art  and  French  im- 
pressionism. Her  best  picture,  however,  has  for  Its  sub- 
ject a  farmyard  with  the  whitish-grey  wall  of  a  house 
shining  in  the  sunlight  and  shifting  Into  a  multiplicity  of  half- 
tones in  the  shadows.  Her  persevering  attention  to  the 
wealth  of  tone  gives  to  this  piece  unusual  materiality  and 
power.  She  has  also  made  interesting  studies  of  lamplight 
which  betray  her  enthusiasm  for  Rembrandt,  an  enthusiasm 
that  nevertheless  makes  no  diminution  of  her  originality. 

Marie  Tannaes  stands  close  to  Signe  Scheel,  and  divides 
with  her  the  honor  of  being  the  most  significant  of  the 
many  feminine  painters  who  associated  themselves  with  the 
open-air  movement  In  the  eighties.  She  has  been  an  in- 
dustrious and  very  productive  landscapist;  and  her  land- 
scapes, for  the  most  part  upon  autumnal  themes,  are  exe- 
cuted with  a  broad  and  juicy  brush. 


MOnr:RN   NORWECilAN  ART  575 

Jacob  Bratlaiul  painted  his  most  important  picture  in 
icS88,  under  the  title  After  a  Night  of  Watching,  showing  a 
father  and  mother  at  the  sickbed  of  their  child.  This  work 
was  awartled  a  second-class  medal  at  the  Uni\crsal  l^xposi- 
tion.  In  the  National  Gallery  hangs  a  painting  of  his 
called  Sunday,  done  in  1891,  a  well  told  and  naturally 
treated  country  idyll  representing  a  young  boy  and  a  girl 
instituting  an  acquaintance  of  a  Sunday  morning  on  the 
green  adjoining  the  church. 

Gudmund  Stenersen  also  is  among  those  who  made  their 
debut  in  the  late  eighties,  but  who  still  belong  to  the 
naturalistic  group.  His  best  things  originated  In  the  region 
of  Jaederen.  Here  he  got  his  theme  for  the  large  canvas, 
instinct  with  feeling,  that  presents  young  men  and  women 
resting  about  a  bonfire  on  St.  John's  Eve  and  listening  to 
the  notes  of  a  violoncello,  each  wrapped  In  his  own  thoughts, 
beneath  the  flickering,  fantastic  firelight.  There  Is  a  kind 
of  Protean  variety  about  Stenersen's  art.  He  Is  most  suc- 
cessful with  pen  and  Ink,  In  which  cases  his  technique  ap- 
proaches that  of  Werensklold. 

The  most  gifted  among  the  young  figure  painters  who 
about  1890  took  up  rural  life  for  renewed  treatment  Is 
August  Elebakke,  who  was  born  In  1867.  He  studied  dur- 
ing one  winter  under  Zahrtmann  In  Copenhagen,  an  ex- 
perience that  came  to  have  decisive  Importance  for  his 
subsequent  development.  Later  he  continued  his  training 
in  Paris,  and  thereafter  through  a  longer  sojourn  In  Italy. 
In  the  National  Gallery  Is  to  be  found  his  most  notable 
work,  from  the  year  1891,  entitled  Making  Preparations  or 
The  Arrival  of  Visitors.  With  excellent  power  of  charac- 
terization and  brilliant  technique  he  portrays  here  the  main 
living-room  In  a  country  home,  In  the  foreground  a  table 
decked  with  linen  upon  which  a  young  girl  Is  placing  the 
best  that  the  house  affords,  while  the  guests  wait  In  the 
background.  As  regards  material  the  picture  Is  one  of  the 
most  skillfully  painted  In  Norwegian  art.  In  addition  the 
figures  Indicate  close  observation  of  rustic  manners  and 
usages.  It  Is  the  last  word  In  Imitation  of  reality. 


576 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Making  Preparations,   by  August  Eiebakke.     In   the   National   Gallery 

It  may  well  be  said  that  in  Eiebakke's  Making  Prepara- 
tions the  illusionism  of  the  eighties  finds  its  last  pregnant 
expression.  Even  In  the  large,  pale  Summer  Night's  Land- 
scape with  which  Oda  Krohg  made  her  debut  in  1886  there 
is  a  new  and  more  lyric  mood,  a  mild  echo  of  Edvard 
Munch's  color  poetry.  There  is  something  remarkably 
delicate  and  tender  and  occult  about  this  picture  of  the  flesh- 
colored  house  sleeping  in  the  bosom  of  the  blue  summer 
night.  A  young  woman's  longing  for  the  poetic  and  the 
mystical  here  declares  itself.  Oda  Krohg,  the  wife  of  the 
painter.  Professor  Christian  Krohg,  was  born  in  Christiania 
in  i860.  She  is  not  a  painter  by  vocation,  but  something  of 
a  brilliant  dilettante  in  taste  and  force  of  emotion.  She 
spent  a  number  of  years  in  Paris,  where  she  was  occupied 
with  a  sort  of  colored  work  upon  leather  in  the  form  of 
book-bindings  for  the  Parisian  art  market.  In  1900  she 
resumed  painting  and  produced  a  very  good  portrait  of  the 
author  Gunnar  Heiberg,  done  In  lamplight  with  great 
breadth  and  power.     This  work  was  one  of  the  chief  can- 


MODERN  NORWFXilAN  ART 


577 


Portrait  of  the  Author  Gunnar  Heiberg,  by  Oda  Krohg. 
National   Museum,    Stockholm 


In  the 


vases  at  the  Norwegian  exhibition  in  Stockholm  in  1903, 
and  was  bought  for  the  Swedish  National  Museum. 

That  departure  from  the  naturalistic  and  realistic  style 
which  most  strikingly  marks  the  nineties  also  had  a  strong 
effect  on  the  lyrical  painter  of  Nordland,  Thorolf  Holmboe. 
Holmboe  was  born  in  Helgeland  in  1866,  and  in  1886  went 
to  Berlin,  where  he  became  the  last  pupil  of  Gude;  later 
he  visited  Italy,  and  for  a  considerable  time  lived  in  Paris. 
His  studies  under  Gude  were  of  decisive  Influence  upon  his 
development,  particularly  as  a  marine  painter.  Holmboe's 
earlier  sea-pieces  were  of  an  altogether  realistic  character. 


578 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Aker  River,  by  Thorolf  Holmboe.    In  the  National  Gallery 

No  sooner,  however,  did  the  conventional  decorative  move- 
ment In  art,  which  during  the  nineties  spread  from  England 
throughout  Europe,  reach  us  than  he  took  part  In  It.  More- 
over, In  sympathy  with  the  new  romantic-lyrical  poetry 
that  came  Into  vogue  at  the  same  time,  especially  in  the 
verse  of  Vilhelm  Krag,  Holmboe  drew  farther  and  farther 
away  from  realism  and  open-air  painting.  The  soft  evening 
moods  of  the  enthusiast,  with  simplified  lines  and  decorative 
contrasts  in  color  now  became  characteristic  of  his  painting. 
In  recent  years,  however,  he  has  abandoned  these  literary 
moods.  More  resolutely  and  directly  he  attacks  the 
artistic  problems  that  reality  brings  before  him.  His 
palette  has  gained  thereby  in  richness  and  force  of  ex- 
pression. The  National  Gallery  has  a  good  picture  of  his 
from  this  period  In  a  view  of  the  Aker  River  at  Vaterland 


M0I)I<:RN   NOkWPXilAN    AkI  57n 

with  misty  sjiring  iiioonli^lit  upon  tlic  wilderness  of  roofs 
and  tlic  gleaming  course  of  the  river.  I  lolmhoe  is  a  \  ery 
prolific  artist.  lie  has  also  been  ae(i\  e  as  an  illusli-ator.  In 
sketches  for  co\'crs  and  title  pages,  lor  book-hintiings  wwil 
tapestries  he  has  demonstrated  an  inexhaustible  and  Ihuiit 
gift  for  decorative  composition. 

Lars  Jorde,  too,  who  was  born  in  1865,  is  most  properly 
to  be  placed  in  this  transitional  period.  His  Christmas 
Festival,  with  the  brilliantly  illuminated  farmhouse  and  the 
sleighs  waiting  In  the  moonlight,  now  hangs  In  the  National 
Gallery.  He  associated  himself  with  the  group  which  went 
to  Denmark  and  Italy,  and  there  he  received  lasting  im- 
pressions from  foreign  and  from  ancient  art.  Since  that 
time  he  has  lived  at  LUlehammer,  and  has  dedicated  his 
brush  to  the  portrayal  of  nature  in  the  Uplands  of  Norway, 
winter  and  spring,  now  In  the  spirit  of  Collett  and  now  in 
the  vein  of  younger  contemporaries. 


VIII 
MUNCH 

IN  the  foregoing  consideration  of  later  Norwegian  paint- 
ing one  name  has  been  purposely  omitted  because  it  can- 
not be  classified  in  any  school  or  in  any  close  group  of 
comrades,  but  stands  out  strong  and  solitary  in  the  current 
of  events — the  name  of  Edvard  Munch.  Edvard  Munch, 
Norway's  greatest  painter,  is  descended  from  an  aristocratic 
family  of  purely  Norwegian  blood,  a  family  that  originated 
in  a  mountain  province  and  which  throughout  the  nineteenth 
century  has  left  its  impress  upon  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
land.  One  man  of  genius  the  house  has  produced  before 
Edvard  Munch,  namely  his  uncle,  the  historian  Peter 
Andreas  Munch,  the  author  of  the  History  of  the  Norwegian 
People. 

Edvard  Munch's  father  was  a  district  physician  at  Loiten 
in  Hedemarken,  and  here  the  son  was  born  in  1863. 
Although  Munch  is  thus  well  on  his  way  toward  sixty,  he  is 
nevertheless  the  most  prominent  figure,  indeed  the  central 
figure,  among  younger  Norwegian  painters.  His  name 
marks  the  great  point  of  division  in  the  art  of  his  country, 
the  turning  point  from  realism  and  illusionism  in  painting  to 
a  wholly  personal  interpretation  and  to  an  artistic  execution 
that  in  power  and  beauty  is  without  contemporary  parallel  in 
the  Scandinavian  kingdoms.  Munch's  art  took  its  departure 
from  the  naturalism  of  the  eighties,  to  begin  with,  and  he 
stood  rather  near  Krohg  and  Heyerdahl.  Yet  even  in  the 
early  phases  of  his  production  there  is  a  more  spiritual  ele- 
ment than  in  the  work  of  the  naturalists.  Greater  lightness 
of  body  in  the  coloring,  greater  charm  and  Inspiration  in  pic- 

580 


MODERN  NORWKC.IAN  ART 


581 


torial  treatment,  and  first  and  last  a  more  soulful  (juality  are 
the  marks  of  his  manner. 

Even  Munch's  purely  realistic  portraits  of  a  remote  date, 
such  as  the  wonderful  likeness  of  Hans  Jaiger,  show  an 
intuitive  perception  of  personality  and  an  unexatTipled  ability 
in  concentrating 
characteristics  and 
making  them  ex- 
pressive of  m  o  o  d. 
As  the  anarchistic 
reformer  of  society 
sits  there,  for  the 
moment  flagging 
and  disappointed, 
bitter  and  poor  and 
freezing  in  a  cold 
back  room,  with  hat 
and  coat  on  and  with 
a  glass  before  him, 
the  picture  presents 
not  only  Hans  Jae- 
ger himself  in  an  hour  of  disillusion,  but  the  whole  sum  of 
pessimism  and  contempt  for  humanity  that  marked  the 
Bohemians  of  the  eighties.  As  regards  pure  painting, 
Munch's  portrait  of  himself  from  the  year  1895  is  probably 
not  on  a  par  with  the  Jaeger  portrait;  the  coloring  is  thinner 
in  its  blue  uniformity.  Yet  what  spiritual  exaltation  shines 
out  from  the  canvas  1  This  proud  and  lonely  man,  standing 
before  our  eyes  as  in  a  vision,  illumined  by  the  sheen  of  mys- 
tical footlights  and  wrapped  in  blue  shadows,  is  the  magician 
who  has  produced  Edvard  Munch's  remarkable,  painful  and 
yet  irradiating  art. 

It  was  in  1883  that  Munch  showed  his  first  picture,  entitled 
The  Sick  Child.  This  painting,  now  universally  recognized 
as  one  of  the  masterpieces  in  Norwegian  art,  so  sensitive  in 
conception,  so  powerful  In  handling,  so  exuberant  in  pictorial 
effect,  and  so  sublimely  simple  In  theme  as  it  is,  did  not  at  the 
time  of  its  appearance  gain  general  acceptation,  even  among 


Morning,  by  Edvard  Munch 


582 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Portrait  of   Hans  jEger,   by  Edvard  Munch.     In  the  National   Gallery 

artists.  It  came  into  being  during  the  period  of  the  indurated 
worship  of  reality  that  stamped  the  eighties.  The  picture, 
moreover,  was  a  veritable  gauntlet  cast  in  the  face  of  photo- 
graphic realism;  it  was  sheer  feeling,  enveloped  in  a  veil  of 
lovely  color.  It  gave  little  hint  of  the  stuffs  in  the  clothing, 
little  account  of  day  and  hour;  it  was  on  the  whole  not  much 
of  a  corner  of  actuality,  to  use  the  phrase  of  the  time,  but  a 


MODKRN  NORWrXilAN  AR  I'  58.-^ 


Portrait  of  Himself,  by  Edvard  Munch.     In  the  National  Gallery 

vital  creation  of  temperament.  Out  from  a  warmly  tinted 
twilight  gleams  the  pale  profile  of  a  child,  framed  in  golden 
red  hair.  At  one  side  appears  more  faintly  the  mother, 
bowed  in  weeping  against  the  invalid's  chair.  The  lines  of 
the  composition  are  Inimitably  joined  Into  harmony  in  the 
picture,  where  two  beings  that  have  been  closely  united  are 


584 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Sick  Child,  by  Edvard  Munch.     In  the  National  Gallery 


now  tenderly  drawn  apart  from  each  other.     The  wings  of 
death  cast  their  shadow  over  this  picture. 

Another  painting  from  Miinch's  youth,  during  which  he 
himself  often  went  through  hard  sieges  of  illness,  also  car- 
ries us  into  the  sick  room;  this  work,  entitled  Spring,  dated 
1889,  now  has  a  place  in  the  National  Gallery.  As  an 
example  of  plain  and  firm  composition  the  piece  is  without 
parallel;  in  thoroughgoing  coloristic  construction  it  is  per- 
fect; as  a  presentation  from  life  and  as  a  rendering  of  mood 
it  is  impressive.  The  first  warm  day  of  spring  has  come. 
The  chair  in  which  the  sick  young  girl  rests  has  been  moved 
to  the  open  window,  and  there  she  is  sitting  languidly  relaxed 
among  the  pillows,  sensing  the  stream  of  air  that  wafts  over 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


585 


■ 

r 

1    ' 

i 

^^^^^^B 1^^  ♦.  ,7^^3I 

''*^^        .-iv  \ 

586 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Girls  on  the  Bridge,  by  Edvard  Munch.     In  the  National  Gallery 

her.  A  breeze  freighted  with  the  redolent  odors  of  earth 
fills  at  the  moment  the  light  curtain  so  that  it  swells  into  the 
semblance  of  a  sail.  As  if  in  gratitude  for  this  boon  the 
glance  of  the  convalescent  turns  toward  the  bent  old  mother, 
who  with  her  knitting  has  taken  a  seat  near  at  hand  and  fol- 
lows intently  the  expression  on  the  features  of  the  invalid. 
No  word  is  spoken,  but  the  silence  is  charged  with  quivering 
hopes,  and  the  spring  sun  floods  the  ensemble  of  colors.  It 
is  life  upon  luminous  wings  that  hovers  over  this  picture. 

As  a  landscapist  Munch  is  in  the  first  instance  the  por- 
trayer  of  the  Northern  summer  night.  No  one  has  equaled 
him  in  catching  the  mystical  quality  of  limpid  summer  nights, 


MODERN   NORWIX.IAN   ARl'  5.S7 


The  Island,  by  Edvard  Munch.    Privately  owned  in  Christiania 

with  crowns  of  mighty  trees  above  slumbering  white  houses 
and  the  pallid,  veiled  tones  along  the  shallow  beaches.  Yet 
against  this  soft  background  he  frequently  masses  the  re- 
sounding splendor  of  pure  colors  from  the  dresses  of  young 
girls  or  women  into  the  very  foreground  of  the  picture.  It  is 
characteristic  of  Munch's  art  that  it  often  veers  from  the 
suave  and  lyrical  to  the  most  intense  energy  of  coloristic 
expression,  which  occasionally  does  not  stop  short  even  of 
brutality.  He  is  typically  Norwegian  both  in  his  lyricism  and 
in  his  violence,  both  in  his  morbid  dreaminess  and  in  his  wide- 
awake, alertly  sentient  perception  of  reality. 

In  the  summer  of  1888  Munch  made  his  first  stay  at 
Aasgaardstrand,  a  little  fishing  village  on  the  Christiania 
fjord,  whose  beautiful  natural  features  have  provided  sub- 
jects for  more  than  one  Norwegian  painter.  Here  he  received 
the  inspiration  for  several  pictures  marked  by  intense  feeling, 


588 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


such  as  his  lovely  Starry  Night,  now  owned  by  Fridtjof  Nan- 
sen,  and  The  Girls  on  the  Bridge,  in  the  National  Gallery. 
In  1 892,  as  it  happened,  Edvard  Munch  was  invited  by  the 
Art  Society  of  Berlin  to  exhibit  there.  Munch  came,  the 
paintings  were  hung  in  the  Arkitektenhaus,  the  exhibition 
opened,  and  was  immediately  closed.  The  public  were 
enormously  scandalized,  the  papers  were  filled  with  articles 
for  and  against  the  Norwegian  anarchistic  artist,  and  the  Art 
Society,  after  a  stormy  session,  split  into  two  factions  which 
ever  since  have  been  irreconcilably  opposed  to  each  other. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Liebermann  130  artists  left  the 
Society  and  formed  a  new  association  with  exhibitions  of  their 
own,  thereafter  known  as  the  Secessionists.  Munch  presently 
opened  a  private  exhibition,  and  his  fame  soon  spread  abroad. 
The  collection  went  the  rounds  of  various  German  cities, 
Dusseldorf,   Cologne,   Hamburg,   and  Munich,   and  subse- 


*^^m^^^^ 


Death  Enters  the  Room,  by  Edvard  Munch.     In  the  National  Gallery 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  AR  r 


5S9 


.Tl 


The  Kiss.     Wood-cut  by  Edvard  Munch 

quently  to  Copenhagen  and  Stockholm.  Everywhere  it  caused 
offence,  strongly  tinctured  nevertheless  with  admiration.  In 
Berlin  Munch  and  Strindberg  met.  Later  Obstfelder  and 
Vigeland  joined  them.  It  was  a  fruitful  concurrence  of  talent, 
which  no  doubt  had  inspiring  results  for  each  and  all  of  these 
intellectuals.  Munch's  paintings  from  this  period  have  with- 
out exception  erotic  themes,  and  bear  titles  such  as  Jealousy, 
The  Vampire — a  woman  kissing  a  man's  neck  and  swath- 
ing him  in  her  hair.  Woman's  Love  and  its  variant  The 
Madonna,  as  this  masterly  presentation  of  the  moment  of 
conception  has  later  been  called. 

Universal  and  international  in  scope  as  these  speculative 
works  are,  they  have  gained  for  Munch,  throughout  the 
centres  of  culture  and  especially  in  Germany,  a  group  of 
adherents  who  fanatically  embrace  his  ideas  and  worship  his 
art.  His  exhibits  have  gone  to  all  of  the  larger  cities,  includ- 
ing Vienna,  Prague,  and  Paris.  He  has  made  proselytes 
everywhere.  Moreover,  in  later  years — before  the  war — 
economic  success  has  attended  artistic  success.    In  the  Linde 


590 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


History.     Mural  Painting  in  the   University  of   Chrl 
Munch 


by  Edvard 


Collection  at  Liibeck,  one  of  the  most  exclusive  collections 
of  modern  art  in  Germany,  hang  works  by  him,  paintings, 
etchings,  wood-engravings  in  great  number  and  side  by  side 
with  the  paintings  of  Manet,  Whistler,  Degas,  and  Bocklin, 
and  in  the  same  rooms  with  the  largest  representation  of 
Rodin  outside  of  France. 

Munch  experienced  a  prolific  period  upon  settling  down 
in  the  little  town  of  Kragero  on  the  shores  of  Skagerak;  not 
without  reason  this  period  might  be  counted  the  high-water 
mark  in  his  entire  production.  Here  he  executed  vigorous 
and  juicy  landscapes,  and  here  he  continued  his  series  of 
life-sized  standing  portraits  of  men.  Here,  finally,  he  con- 
ceived the  ideas  for  his  University  decorations  and  painted 
his  tentative  studies  for  them.  In  these  mural  pictures  orna- 
menting the  great  auditorium  at  the  University  of  Christiania 
he  symbolizes  with  unexampled  coloristic  power  the  arts 
and  natural  sciences  in  the  plainest  and  most  unassuming 
manner  by  means  of  simple  scenes  from  Norwegian  life  and 
nature. 

Only  the  main  outlines  of  Munch's  production  as  a  painter 
have  been  drawn  here.  As  a  graphic  artist,  too,  he  has  turned 
out  a  mass  of  things.  He  has  drawn  portraits  in  black  and 
white  of  a  large  number  of  artists  and  literary  men,  men 
like  Malarme,  Strindberg,  Gunnar  Heiberg,  Helge  Rode, 
Sigbjorn  Obstfelder,  Tor  Hedberg,  Jens  Thiis,  and  others. 
Further,  there  are  erotic  themes  and  subjects  from  child  life 
and  animal  life  in  the  glorious  and  abundant  output  of  litho- 


modj-:rn  N()Rvvi:(.iy\N  art  591 

{graphs,  wo()cl-ciip;ra\'inf^s,  and  ctcliiii^s  tliat  ha\  c  come  liom 
his  hand. 

Julvard  Munch  is  undoubtedly  the  most  pictorially  jilted 
of  all  ot  the  painters  that  have  seen  the  Hght  of  day  in  Nor- 
way, Moreover,  in  his  art  there  has  appeared  more  and 
more  an  individual,  self-evolved  personality,  a  personality 
that  enfolds,  besides  the  brilliantly  endowed  painter,  also 
something  of  the  brooding  thinker  and  much  of  the  poet. 
His  art  is  a  disclosure  of  temperament,  which  carries  the 
effect  of  a  philosophy  of  life. 


IX 
THE  PRESENT  GENERATION  OF  PAINTERS 

THE  youths  who  grew  up  in  the  pettifogging  atmosphere 
of  the  eighties  were  neither  robust  nor  pugnacious.  In 
many  respects  they  were  a  disillusioned  generation  of 
young  doubters  and  dreamers.  Upon  the  worship  of  brutal 
reality  that  distinguished  the  eighties  there  followed  a  reac- 
tion toward  dreaming  and  neo-romanticism  that  was  wholly 
consistent  and  necessary.  This  reaction,  which  for  that  mat- 
ter was  only  the  reflection  of  a  general  European  movement 
away  from  naturalism  and  the  illusions  of  actuality,  was 
largely  determined  among  us  by  influences  emanating  from 
Denmark.  Through  the  mediation  of  the  Danes  our  young 
artists  were  led  to  Italy  and  to  the  old  masters  of  the  gal- 
leries. From  these  sources  they  derived  their  soft,  warm, 
velvet  tone;  there  they  whetted  their  sense  of  hne  and  of 
composition.  In  view  of  the  transitory  character  of  the 
tendency  in  our  country,  it  could  not  fail  to  have  a  beneficial 
effect  upon  our  art  life.  It  brought  results  in  culture,  in 
knowledge,  and  in  aptitude  of  which  there  was  real  need. 
Our  neo-naturalistic  art  was  in  process  of  being  barbarized; 
foreign  culture  was  a  positive  necessity.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, for  our  subsequent  development,  this  Danish-Italian 
spirit,  which  In  the  long  run  inevitably  must  have  remained 
strange  and  exotic  to  us,  did  not  acquire  a  lasting  hold  upon 
our  painters.  When  their  eyes  were  opened  to  really  modern 
French  art  and  Its  abounding  color  values,  the  best  among 
them  promptly  turned  to  the  right  about  and  the  others  soon 
followed. 

In  this  movement,  meanwhile,  there  are  two  personalities 
592 


MODIlkN    NOkWI'.dlAN    AR'I' 


593 


Mali  Clasen,  by  Halfdan  Egedius.     Privately  owned 
in  Christiania 


that  take  a  place  apart — Egedius  and  Sohlberg,  the  first 
because  he  died  too  early  to  share  in  the  general  retreat  to 
impressionism,  the  other  because  his  nature  and  his  endow- 
ments lean  altogether  in  the  opposite  direction  and  because 
on  the  whole  he  has  never  followed  the  stream. 

Halfdan  Egedius,  who  was  born  in  1877,  was  something 
of  the  child  prodigy.  At  a  very  early  age,  in  his  first  work, 
he  gave  evidence  of  promise;  but  just  as  promise  was  giving 
way  to  assurance  of  the  reality  and  power  of  his  gifts,  and 
to  a  well-founded  expectation  of  decisive  results,  death  car- 
ried him  off  before  he  had  completed  his  twenty-second 
year.  Egedius  sounded  his  prelude  upon  the  finest  chords  in 
Werenskiold's  art,  upon  the  illustrations  to  the  Tales  and 


594 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


upon  the  Telemarken  idylls  with  their  horses,  and  young 
boys,  and  girls  in  oscillating  belled  skirts.  In  concert  with 
these  themes  he  created  through  increasing  independence  and 
character  a  series  of  pictures  from  Telemarken  and  Vaage, 
in  which  the  delicate  notes  of  summer  night  vibrate  and  which 
are  often  so  simple  and  charming  in  their  poetic  content  that 
they  recall  the  open-hearted  refrains  of  popular  ballads. 
His  Midsummer  Landscape  in  the  National  Gallery,  with 
the  morel-tree,  the  white  horse,  and  the  boy  in  a  red  jacket 
is  just  such  a  harmonious  and  fervent  piece  of  work. 

That  Egedius  toward  the  close  of  his  brief  life  as  an  artist 
had  gone  far  in  developing  his  manner  from  the  idyllic  to  the 
monumental  is  evidenced,  for  example,  by  his  portrait  of 
Mari  Clasen.  This  young  farmer's  wife  from  Kviteseid  in 
Telemarken  has  a  style  and  poise  like  de  Tornabuoni  of 
Florence    in    Ghirlandajo's    frescoes    in    the    Santa    Maria 


Fiddle    and    Dance,    by    Halfdan    Egedius.      In    the    National    Gallery 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART 


595 


Landscape,    by    Halfdan    Egedius.      In    the    National    Gallery 

Novella  !  And  for  his  illustrations  to  Snorre  the  youthful 
painter  took  up  constructively  the  thread  of  Werenskiold's 
and  Munthe's  conventional  drawing  and  carried  the  prob- 
lems of  composition  farther  toward  solution  in  fixed  forms 
than  any  other  Norwegian  artist  before  him. 

Harald  Sohlberg,  who  was  born  in  Christiania  in  1869,  as 
artist  and  as  man  is  a  peculiarly  brusque  and  isolated  figure  in 
our  annals.  He  made  his  debut  together  with  Egedius  in 
1894,  and  already  at  that  time  struck  the  chords  upon  which 
he  has  played  imperturbably  ever  since.  His  art  Is  an  ex- 
tremely Individual  combination  of  conventional  and  natural- 
istic qualities.  His  point  of  departure  is  fidelity  to  nature,  a 
primitive  and  persistent  cultivation  of  detail  after  the  manner 
of  the  draughtsman.  In  thus  striving  to  attain  the  utmost 
In  one  direction,  in  draughtsmanship,  he  necessarily  suffers 
a  curtailment,  a  species  of  indigence  in  the  other  direction 
Sohlberg's  art  abandons  sedulously  and  purposely  the  beaten 
paths  of  modern  ideas  of  coloring,  he  renounces  the  Illusive 
properties  of  pigments,  he  renounces  stroke  and  atmospheric 
effect.  In  compensation  he  gains  a  glow  as  of  enamels  and 
a  depth  of  precious  stones  by  means  of  his  thin,  smoothly- 


596 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


laid  color,  inimitably  his  own.  There  is  a  magical  force  of 
light  in  the  blue-green  vault  of  the  heavens  in  his  Summer 
Night,  with  its  deserted  gala  table  for  two,  its  flowers  and 
open  veranda  door.  Sohlberg's  principal  work,  however,  is 
the  picture  of  Rondane,  or  as  he  calls  it  himself,  A  Winter 
Night  in  the  Mountains.  Beyond  question  it  is  one  of  the 
most  monumental  canvases  in  the  entire  range  of  Norwegian 
art,  although  it  Is  painted  with  an  extremely  minute  execution 
that  in  fact  defies  all  modern  notions  of  technique.  One  has 
no  longer  the  impression  of  painting,  but  rather  of  a  new 
combination  of  the  arts — of  melodious  architecture  or  ol 
frozen  poetry.  And  still  it  is  just  the  color  effect  that  is  con- 
clusive; this  tone  overwhelms  the  visual  nerves  with  almost 
painful  intensity.  Strictly  speaking,  the  picture  has  but  one 
tmt,  blue.  Yet  with  cold  and  untiring  passion  this  one  pig- 
ment is  worked  up  into  the  most  dazzling  blue,  sharp  as 
ice-needles,  verging  on  empty  white,  and  on  the  other  side 
shaded  down  into  deep  green  opaque  notes  that  border  on 
absolute  darkness.  It  is  a  coloring  quite  subversive  of  all  our 
preconceived  ideas  of  oil  painting — a  coloring  that  has  little 
of  the  lusciousness  and  glow  of  oil  painting,  but  has  rather 
the  delicate,  frangible  hardness  and  brilliance  of  enamel. 


Roros  in  Winter,  bv  Ha  raid  Sob 


In  tbe  National  Gallery 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  597 


Winter    in    the    Mountains    Rondane,    by    Haiald    Sohlberg.       In    the 
National  Gallery 

Harald  Sohlberg  is  an  Isolated  phenomenon  in  our  art. 
He  is  unlike  everybody  else  and  subscribes  to  the  tenets  of 
no  school.  It  would  be  difficult,  however,  to  find  a  more 
absolute  contrast  to  him  than  are  the  two  painters  of  his  own 
generation  who  have  become  to  a  marked  degree  representa- 
tive of  a  studied  colorism  learned  in  the  schools  of  Europe — 
Thorvald  Erichsen  and  Oluf  Wold-Torne.  They  belong 
like  him  to  the  new  romantic  group  of  the  nineties  which 
studied  in  Denmark  and  worshipped  Italia.  The  solid 
foundations  of  their  technique  were  laid  in  Copenhagen 
under  Zahrtmann,  and  there  they  began  to  acquire  that 
artistic  culture  which  they  later  developed  by  frequent  trips 
to  Italy  and  France.  Both  began  with  a  reaction  against  the 
strident  impressionism  of  the  eighties  and  at  first  painted  in 
subdued,  cello-like  tones,  but  later  they  received  fresh  im- 
pulses  from  modern   French  art,   and  their  admiration  in 


598 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


particular  for  Cezanne  stimulated  and  kept  alive  in  them 
that  sense  of  color  which  is  after  all  the  essence  of  their  talent. 
Thorvald  Erichsen,  a  native  of  Trondhjem,  born  in  1868, 
has  brought  into  Norwegian  art  an  element  of  good  taste  and 
elevation  which  has  to  some  extent  been  lacking.  His  Land- 
scape from  Kviteseid,  painted  in  1900,  with  its  firm  and  pow- 
erful masses  and  cubes,  is  nothing  less  than  epoch-making  in 
our  modern  painting,  an  abrupt  transition  from  a  hardly 
more  than  mechanical  imitation  of  nature  to  a  consciously 
creative  art.  The  following  year  he  progresses  still  farther 
on  the  same  path  in  the  mellow  interior  with  the  harmonious 
brown  darkness  that  frames  the  gush  of  light  and  color 
through  the  window,  or  in  the  amazing  Forest  Interior  of 
1 90 1,  a  symphony  in  blues  and  greens  where  the  light  flashes 
from  the  flecks  of  sunshine  like  lesser  planets  in  their  element. 
One  may  search  long  and  studiously  among  works  of  modern 
art  to  find  a  more  sovereign  example  of  true  painting;  and 
in    fact   hardly   discover   it   till   he    stands   before   one   of 


Landscape    from    Kviteseid,    by   Thorvald    Erichsen.      In    the    National 
Gallery 


MODFRN  NORWEGIAN  ART  599 


Interior,    bv    Thorvald    Erichsen. 
Gallery 


In    the   National 


Cezanne's  most  inspired  landscapes.  Exaggerations  and 
odious  comparisons  aside,  the  truth  is  that  something  of  what 
Cezanne  has  been  for  universal  art  Erichsen  has  attempted 
to  be  for  Norwegian  art.  He  is  an  artist  of  the  first  water, 
with  a  remarkably  fine  eye  for  color  and  an  individual, 
copious,  unfettered  mastery  of  brush-technique.  Few  or 
none  of  our  younger  men  have  contributed  more  than  he 
toward  raising  the  level  of  artistic  culture  among  us.  I  am 
thinking  now  not  of  ideas  and  sentiments,  which  other  paint- 
ers with  particular  gifts  and  with  temperaments  of  a  different 
order  may  have  expressed  still  more  intensely;  I  am  thinking 
of  the  concentrated,  methodical  seeking  for  the  right  thing, 
no  less  fruitful  for  others  than  for  himself,  with  which  he 
has  cultivated  his  individual  means  of  expression.  Notwith- 
standing his  unusual  intelligence  and  education,  Erichsen  has 
not  published  a  line.  He  has  wrought  only  through  his 
palette.  Yet  in  his  own  field  he  has  been  a  model  husband- 
man of  the  artistic  resources  that  lie  within  his  domain.  His 
goal  has  always  been  the  emancipation  of  painting  from  the 
"subject,"  that  is,  from  imitative  dependence  upon  actuality. 
It  has  been  his  purpose  to  make  composition,  color,  tone,  and 
stroke  stand  out  more  strongly  than  the  subject,  than  the 


600 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Flower      Piece,      by      Oluf      Wold-Torne. 
Privately  owned 


scene  which  may 
chance  to  be  the 
point  of  departure 
and  reference  for  a 
given  piece  of  work. 
He  has  never  over- 
stepped his  proper 
bounds.  He  never 
became  a  cubist;  nor 
surely  has  he  ever 
made  a  stroke  of  the 
brush  without  keep- 
ing his  eye  on  the 
object.  His  work, 
nevertheless,  repre- 
sents a  stage  in  the 
development  of  art  toward  its  final  emancipation  in  cubism. 
In  the  National  Gallery,  Erichsen's  paintings  occupy  the 
greater  part  of  the  long  wall  in  the  "Young  Men's  Room." 
They  adjoin,  and  with  their  bright,  shimmering,  mother-of- 
pearl  tone  harmonize  admirably  with  those  of  his  friend  and 
closest  comrade,  the  painter  of  still  life  and  flower  pieces, 
Oluf  Wold-Torne,  who  was  born  in  1867  and  died  untimely 
in  1919. 

The  two  men,  Erichsen  and  Torne,  belong  together  as 
regards  age  and  development;  in  their  art,  as  well,  they  show 
a  marked  relationship  and  have  followed  much  the  same 
paths.  Torne,  too,  during  his  youth  served  a  Danish  ap- 
prenticeship at  Zahrtmann's  school  in  Copenhagen.  Beyond 
that,  however,  he  has  built  upon  the  foundation  laid  by  the 
native  leaders,  Werenskiold  and  Munthe.  Yet  these  cir- 
cumstances are  not  sufl^cient  to  account  for  the  distinctive 
place  he  holds  in  Norwegian  art,  as  one  of  the  few  who  have 
gained  a  following  Important  enough  to  be  named  a  school. 
No  one  was  more  eager  for  knowledge  or  more  enthusiastic 
In  the  worship  of  good  art,  past  and  present,  than  was  Torne. 
In  his  early  years  he  went  with  the  Danes  to  Italy  and  there 
received  ineradicable  impressions  from  Florence,  Siena,  and 


MODERN  NORWI'Xil.W   AKl  601 


Decorative  Composition,  by  Oluf  Wold-Torne.     In  the  National  Gallery 

the  ancients.  Like  several  others  among  the  painters  of  the 
nineties  he  began  as  a  sort  of  pre-Raphaelite.  Later,  under 
French  tuition  and  discipline,  he  learned  to  express  himself 
in  more  modern  terminology;  above  all,  he  attained  a  clearer 
and  fuller  mastery  of  color.  Like  Erichsen,  he  became  an 
impressionist  of  the  older  order,  yet  with  emphatic  reminis- 
cences of  Cezanne  and  Van  Gogh.  The  charm  of  Renoir  was 
more  foreign  to  his  somewhat  awkward  hand;  in  his  tender 
heart,  nevertheless,  he  may  have  given  the  highest  place  of 
all  to  that  painter  of  flowers  and  of  the  joy  of  life. 

Torne  made  his  debut  in  1893;  and  in  1894  he  exhibited 
his  first  mature  work,  a  somewhat  pre-Raphaelite  portrait 
of  his  wife.  On  his  return  to  Norway,  however,  he  asso- 
ciated himself  wholly  with  the  national  movement  and  its 
tendencies  toward  the  lyrical  cult  of  nature  ;  and  so  he  painted, 
among  other  things,  the  inspired  picture  of  The  Young  Stal- 
lion tossing  his  whinnied  challenge  out  across  the  barren 
uplands,  a  canvas  which  now  is  in  the  collection  of  Rasmus 
Meyer  at  Bergen.  During  this  period  he  had  much  in  com- 
mon with  Egedius.  Torne's  special  field,  meanwhile,  was  the 
painting  of  flowers  and  of  interiors.  The  quietly  withdrawn 
life  of  the  home,  with  wife  and  children,  flowers  and  apples 


602  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

and  all  beloved  household  things  finds  its  exponent  in  him; 
within  this  limited  sphere  he  gives  expression  to  his  dreams 
of  artistic  felicities  in  a  gamut  of  tender  and  powerful  colors 
and  in  shimmering,  pearly  gradations.  Torne's  was  no  facile 
art  that  rapidly  reached  its  goal;  it  has  been  well  said  of  him 
that  he  wrestled  like  a  very  Jacob  with  his  subjects.  His 
form  is  heavy,  his  stroke  lacks  grace ;  in  countless  layers  the 
pigments  lie  spread  upon  the  canvas.  Yet  he  never  gives  up 
the  battle;  and  in  his  best  pictures  the  hues  gleam  with  a 
peculiar  volume  and  compactness  which  in  intimate  richness 
of  shading  are,  after  their  own  fashion,  without  parallel  in 
Norwegian  art,  celebrated  as  that  art  is  for  its  treatment  of 
color,  Torne's  endowments  were,  however,  like  those  of 
Munthe  and  to  a  certain  degree  also  those  of  Werenskiold, 
twofold.  He  practised  naturalistic  painting  with  a  pre- 
dominant emphasis  on  values  and,  in  addition,  had  a  strong 
leaning  toward  ornamental  and  decorative  handling  of  sur- 
face effects.  He  did  not  possess  Munthe's  lush  imagination 
and  gift  for  fine  fabling;  but  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart  there 
lay  a  deep  desire  to  utter  his  thoughts  freely,  to  sing  his  feel- 
ings in  art  forms  which  should  be  at  once  rhythmically  dis- 
ciplined and  more  unfettered  by  the  realities  of  life  than  the 
laborious  painting  in  oils.  Torne's  decorative  production 
came  to  be  voluminous,  and  his  gifts  proved  to  be  more 
unmistakable  in  this  field  than  in  the  domain  of  pure  painting. 
He  has  turned  out  a  multitude  of  designs  and  drawings  for 
book  illustrations,  tapestries,  embroideries,  and  strictly  deco- 
rative aquarelles  in  which  figures  and  ornamentation  appear 
in  clustered  groupings.  Toward  the  last  he  was  occupied 
also  with  painting  on  glass  and  with  mural  decorations. 
While  painting  in  oils  was  difficult  for  him,  decoration  was 
easy.  He  had  only  to  give  full  play  to  his  pristine  fancy  and 
to  rely  on  his  sure  sense  of  balance  and  his  naturally  fresh 
feeling  for  color;  the  compositions  poured  forth  of  their  own 
accord,  vigorous,  firm  and  compact,  rhythmical  and  storied, 
the  product  of  youthful  imagination  and  confident  command 
of  the  resources  of  style.  His  decorative  art  deals  with  chil- 
dren and  angels  and  climbing  flowers.     The  happy  religious 


MODERN  NOWEGIAN  ART 


603 


Sjodal  Lake,  by  Kristen  Holbo.     In  the  National  Gallery 

faith  that  was  the  motive  power  in  his  life  and  his  art  find 
ready  egress  here.  In  this  realm  of  trustfulness  and  inno- 
cence his  childlike  mind  came  into  calm  reliance  and  peace. 
As  a  teacher  of  decorative  art  and  composition  at  the  School 
of  Arts  and  Crafts  in  Christiania,  Torne  exerted  a  great  and 
telling  influence  on  younger  men  of  the  guild;  and  so  he  is  to 
be  reckoned  among  the  small  number  of  Norwegian  artists 
who  succeeded  in  forming  a  school.  There  was  in  him  much 
of  the  stuff  of  which  a  William  Morris  is  made. 

His  most  distinguished  pupil  and  follower  is  Frojdis 
Haavardsholm,  a  young  woman  of  generous  creative  talent 
and  a  strong  personality,  who,  in  the  decorative  field,  has 
become  the  inheritor  of  his  renown  and  at  the  present  time 
is  the  leader  of  the  decorative  artists  in  Norway.  To  the 
same  group  as  Torne  and  Erichsen  belongs  another  pupil  of 
Zahrtmann,  the  landscape  painter  Kristen  Holbo,  of  Vaage, 
an  unspoiled  and  imaginative  country  artist  who,  in  the  pres- 
entation of  forest  and  mountain  scenes  from  his  home 
parish,  has  occasionally  done  excellent  things.    Further,  Wil- 


604 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Three  Children's  Heads,  by  Ludvig  Karsten.     Privately  owned 


helm  Wetlesen,  who  under  Italian  influences  for  a  time 
tended  strongly  toward  the  pre-Raphaelites  but  who  in  recent 
years  has  arrived  at  more  native  and  restrained  means  of 
utterance ;  August  Jacobsen,  who  at  first  took  his  motifs  from 
nature  in  Jaederen,  on  the  west  coast  of  Norway,  and  later 
from  winter  scenery  in  the  upland  interior;  and  Otto  Hennig, 
who  discovered  points  of  contact  with  his  romantic  feeling 
for  nature  in  older  Norwegian  art,  in  Dahl  and  Fearnley. 
Sigmund  Sinding,  Otto  Sinding's  son,  has  put  his  best  efforts 
into  pictures  of  children,  of  interiors,  and  of  quiet,  melan- 
choly landscapes;  while  Hans  Odegaard  in  a  gloomy  series 
of  paintings  relates  personal  narratives  from  the  dark,  dirty, 
forlorn,  seamy  side  of  life  in  the  capital.  More  recently, 
through  the  influence  of  the  younger  generation,  notably 
Deberitz,  his  art  has  gained  in  composition  and  in  richness  of 
coloring.  Severin  Grande  belongs  also  to  the  group  which 
began   similarly  with   phases   of   Bohemian   life    in  barren 


MODERN   NOKWl'CilAX   ART 


ms 


Consumptive  Woman,  by  Ludvig  Karsten.     In  the 
National    Gallery 


ateliers;  but  as  time  passed,  he  has  taken  on  a  more  modern 
yet  less  individual  manner.  The  same  judgment  applies  to 
Otto  Johansen,  an  impulsive  character  of  marked  receptivity, 
who  after  sundry  divagations  has  cast  anchor  in  the  extremes 
of  French  expressionism. 

Far  above  these  men  of  middling  gifts  rises  an  artist  of 
great  pictorial  talent,  Ludvig  Karsten,  born  in  1876,  who  is 
justly  regarded  as  Munch's  successor,  as  the  outstanding 
personality  in  modern  Norwegian  painting.  Karsten's  in- 
debtedness to  Munch  has  by  no  means  spoiled  his  Individ- 


606 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Knut   Hamsun,   by   Henrik   Lund.     Privately   owned 


uality.  His  originality  is  strong  and  undeniable,  and  he  has 
more  formal  training  than  most  of  his  contemporaries;  the 
time  of  study  he  spent  in  Munich  resulted  in  a  solid  founda- 
tion of  technical  ability  which  most  of  the  younger  artists 
may  well  envy  him.  A  picture  such  as  that  of  the  Three 
Children's  Heads,  owned  by  Johan  Anker,  is  painted  with  a 
living  sense  of  reality  and  a  sweeping  virtuosity  which  no 
other  Norwegian  artist  can  equal.  And  when  in  the  National 
Gallery  we  stand  before  Karsten's  big  picture  of  the  Con- 


MODF.RN  NORWEGIAN  ART 

if 


607 


Portr 


Author  Hans  Jaeger,  by  Henrik  Lund.    Privately 
owned 


sumptive  Old  Woman,  who  appears  so  simple  and  genuine  in 
her  homespun  dress,  it  is  possible  that  reminiscences  of  cer- 
tain works  by  Munch  which  have  suggested  the  composition 
may  occur  to  us,  but  coloristically  the  picture  holds  its  own  in 
defiance  of  Munch.  Indeed  it  is  possible  that  Karsten's  color- 
istic  gift  is  more  vigorous  and  robust  than  that  of  Munch ;  but 
Munch's  mastery  does  not  depend  on  color  alone — it  is  a 
part  of  his  own  commanding  personality. 

Side  by  side  with  Karsten  stands  Henrik  Lund  as  the  most 
prolific  and  interesting  talent  of  the  neo-impressionistic  camp. 
The  influence  of  Munch  in  his  earlier  years  was  fructified  by 


608 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


The  Author  Gunnar  Heiberg  and  Others  in  a  Garden,  by  Henrik  Lund. 
Privately  Owned   in   Bergen 


his  admiration  for  Krohg's  art  of  the  eighties  and  by  the 
impetus  received  from  Manet.  Henrik  Lund  is  first  and 
foremost  a  portrait  painter.  The  keynote  of  his  art  is  his 
shrewd  psychological  insight  and  his  gift  for  salient  charac- 
terization. None  can  equal  him  in  catching  a  fleeting  expres- 
sion and  transferring  it  to  canvas— a  glance,  a  half  smile,  a 
feature  that  reveals  and  yet  conceals  personality.  He  handles 
the  brush  with  dexterous  and  virile  strength  which  makes  him 
one  of  the  few  real  virtuosos  of  Norwegian  painting.  His 
coloring,  which  formerly  had  a  soft  and  gracious  cast  with  a 
prevalence  of  powdered  grey,  has  in  recent  years  developed 
into  bold  and  striking  effects. 

To  the  same  circle  of  modern  colorists  belongs  Arne  Kavll., 
who  was  born  in  1878.  He  began  as  a  painter  of  Jsederen 
in  a  heavy  dark  coloring  with  austere  and  restrained  draw- 
ing— a  typical  neo-romanticist  with  decided  leanings  to  the 


M()1)1:RN    NOKWl'XilAN   AR'I 


600 


In   the  Attic,  by  Bernhard  Folkestad.     In  the  National    Gallery 

gallery.  Later  he  has  turned  to  the  right  about  and  is  now  the 
very  opposite  of  his  former  self.  He  has  developed  into  a 
graceful  and  subtle  impressionist  of  a  decidedly  modern  type 
with  a  palette  that  is  the  last  word  in  brightness  and  airiness. 
In  addition  to  being  a  painter  of  taste,  Kavli  is  also  a  talented 
caricaturist  with  a  caustic  wit. 

Torstein  Torsteinson,  born  in  1876,  began  in  the  nineties 
with  a  style  learned  in  the  school  of  the  famous  painter  of 
nuances,  Whistler.  Later,  under  the  influence  partly  of 
Munch  and  partly  of  modern  French  art,  he  has  found  the 
form  best  suited  to  him  in  a  light,  flowing  color,  combined 
with  powerful  draughtsmanship,  and  revealing  in  his  best 
pictures  a  considerable  amount  of  character  as  well  as  a 
trained  artistic  taste. 

Closely  related  to  the  foregoing  painters,  we  have  Bern- 
hard  Folkestad,  born  in  1879.  He  is  a  temperamental  artist 
with  a  gift  for  decorative  effect  who,  in  a  bright  and  vivid 
coloring,  paints  preferably  still  life,  flowers,  fruit,  or  scenes 
from  the  chicken-yard,  whose  pied  inhabitants  he  has  ob- 
served closely.  Among  his  most  important  works  is  a  monu- 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Two  Young  Girls,  by  Soren  Onsager.     In  the  National  Gallery 


mental  still  life  of  vegetables  In  which  a  red  and  a  green 
cabbage  are  prominent.  This  painting,  which  was  his  debut, 
was  immediately  bought  by  the  National  Gallery.  As  an 
Interpreter  of  the  nature  of  the  Westland,  Nicolai  Astrup, 
born  In  1880  In  Jolster,  in  western  Norway,  has  found  a  spe- 
cial field  well  suited  to  his  imaginative  nature  lyricism.  He 
may  well  be  said  to  have  broken  new  ground  for  Norwegian 
landscape  painting.  A.  C.  Svarstad,  born  in  1869,  has  also 
found  a  special  field,  though  a  very  different  one,  in  the  city 
picture.  In  pale  grey  or  slightly  archaistically  colored  paint- 
ings from  the  South  and  from  the  North  he  has  combined 
colorlstic  subtlety  with  a  certain  amount  of  involuntary 
naivlte.  Svarstad  has  also  painted  psychologically  interesting 
portraits,  especially  of  women.  Among  the  painters  of  this 
younger  generation  should  also  be  mentioned  Soren  Onsager, 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  611 


Gudrun,  by  Henrik  Sorensen.     Privately  owned  in  Gothenburg 

whose  favorite  subject  is  the  nude  human  body.  With  ex- 
quisite delicacy  of  feeling  he  paints  especially  very  young 
girls  with  a  peculiar  subdued,  restrained  coloring  which 
shows  the  impress  of  his  Danish-French  training  under 
Zahrtmann  and  Gaugin, 

The  youngest  Norwegian  artists  belong  to  the  so-called 
expressionistic  cult,  and  most  of  them  have  after  their  school- 
ing at  home  continued  their  study  in  Paris,  generally  in  the 
famous   atelier  of   Matisse.     There   some   of  them  have 


612 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Fishermen   in   the    Mediterranean,    by  Axel    Revold.      Privately   owned 


acquired  a  well-grounded  and  broad  artistic  culture  and  a 
sense  of  composition  and  drawing,  neither  of  which  are  very 
common  here  at  home.  This  fact  has  undoubtedly  attracted 
less  attention  than  it  should,  inasmuch  as  the  public  has  chiefly 
noted  the  unusual  palette  affected  by  the  group,  combined  of 
clear,  strong  pigments  in  decorative  juxtaposition.  In  19 14, 
in  the  secessionist  exhibition  known  as  De  fjorten  at  the  Cen- 
tennial Exposition  at  Christiania,  these  young  painters  made 
an  impressive  showing.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  group 
contains  several  unusual  and  original  talents  with  a  very 
creditable  production  behind  them.  Among  them  are  Henrik 
Sorensen,  Jean  Heiberg,  Per  Deberitz,  Rudolf  Thygesen, 
and  Axel  Revold.  My  personal  belief  is  that  it  is  in  this 
direction  we  must  look  in  the  future  for  the  most  valuable 
contributions  to  Norwegian  pictorial  art. 


X 

SCULPTURE  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

THE  history  of  Norwegian  sculpture  in  the  nineteenth 
century  is  not  a  very  eventful  or  briUiant  saga.  It  is  a 
history  in  which  there  are  no  high  seas  and  no  dashing 
breakers;  it  deals  with  a  continuous,  quiet  struggle  in  which 
defeats  are  many  and  victories  few.  It  recounts  how  a  small 
number  of  isolated  men  fought  to  secure  the  rights  of  nativity, 
even  beneath  the  low  skies  of  Norway,  for  an  art  that  had  its 
origin  in  remote,  sunny  lands,  and  which  more  than  any  other 
art  requires  sunshine,  wealth,  harmonious  conditions — a 
superabundance  of  the  joy  of  life  and  of  sensuous  ease.  Pov- 
erty, winter  weather,  and  pietism,  however,  are  stubborn 
opponents.  Nor  can  it  be  denied,  unfortunately,  that  among 
the  protagonists  of  the  plastic  arts  in  Norway  there  were  not 
many  who  were  endowed  with  that  richness  of  talent  which 
conquers  all  opposition  and  soon  or  late  builds  enduring 
reputations. 

Industry  and  conscientiousness,  fidelity  toward  their  ex- 
alted summons,  a  desire  for  learning,  a  love  for  their  great 
exemplars,  and  a  resigned  courage  in  the  arduous  battle  of 
life — these  are  the  virtues,  nevertheless,  which  have  dis- 
tinguished the  Norwegian  sculptors,  almost  without  excep- 
tion. Some  among  them,  moreover,  possessed  native  gifts 
which,  had  they  not  been  repressed  by  force  of  circumstances, 
would  have  brought  about  a  more  considerable  and  a  more 
fruitful  production  than  that  which  now  remains  to  us.  Yet 
there  is  to  be  found  in  this  small  group,  in  the  personality  of 
Middelthun,  an  individual  talent  of  the  purest  ray,  refined 
through  culture  into  added  serenity.    The  cultural  climate  of 

613 


614  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

his  own  land,  however,  was  too  harsh  for  his  delicate  and 
soulful  nature,  and  his  talent  never  reached  its  full  measure 
of  vigor  and  luxuriance. 

Another  among  them,  Sinding,  an  active  and  fearless 
spirit,  has  bravely  attacked  the  most  difficult  problems  and  in 
supple  sympathy  with  contemporaneous  French  sculpture  has 
executed  a  series  of  works  which  have  borne  the  master's 
fame  far  beyond  the  confines  of  his  native  country.  His 
artistic  individuality,  nevertheless,  is  not  of  those  that  are 
bound  to  their  own  soil;  impatient  over  all  the  tribulations 
which  a  Norwegian  sculptor  must  contend  with,  he  has  chosen 
Denmark  as  his  second  home. 

The  only  one  of  the  number  who  has  given  substance  to  an 
art  that  with  unfailing  power  reflects  a  deep  and  vehemently 
marked  personality  still  stands  beneath  an  ascendent  star. 
And  his  achievements  are  already  numerous  enough  and 
weighty  enough  to  give  an  impression  of  the  profound 
philosophy  of  life  expressed  through  his  art.  This  man  is 
Vigeland.  For  the  rest  we  meet  but  few  whose  endowments 
have  attained  such  a  height  or  developed  so  distinctive  a  qual- 
ity that  they  deserve  to  be  named  unusual.  Most  of  them 
bear  the  scars  of  the  overpowering  conditions  under  which 
they  have  labored.  At  an  earlier  or  later  period  their  artistic 
strength  has  been  crippled. 

It  was  not  merely  that  with  the  larger  number  the  natural 
craving  for  encouragement  and  for  favoring  fortune  was 
altogether  too  infrequently  satisfied.  Even  that  mutual 
sympathy  of  artist  for  artist,  which  from  time  to  time  has 
served  to  unite  our  painters  and  to  hearten  them  in  seasons 
of  trial,  is  not  discoverable  among  the  scattered  and  isolated 
figures  in  the  small  company  of  our  embattled  sculptors. 
The  battle  they  have  waged  has  been,  in  almost  every  single 
case,  not  only  a  depressing  battle  on  behalf  of  art,  but  too 
often  also  a  bitter  struggle  for  breaci.  Hardly  one  of  them 
has  escaped  the  occasional  lack  of  the  bare  necessaries  of 
existence. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  just  their  calm  courage  and  their 
fidelity  to  a  once  accepted  calling  that  lend  significance  to 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  615 

their  warfare  and  cast  a  gleam  of  greatness  over  even  the 
lowliest  of  that  little  band  who  ventured  upon  the  field  of 
sculpture  among  a  people  which  had  so  few  of  the  rccjuisite 
qualifications  to  understand  and  to  feel  the  need  of  their  art. 
In  the  light  of  these  facts  alien  and  compatriot  alike  must 
\iew  their  life  and  their  work. 

As  a  decorative  adjunct  to  architecture  and  to  the  more 
dignified  of  the  handicrafts  plastic  art  has  an  ancient  footing 
in  Norway.  The  abundant  examples  of  carving  from 
our  Romanesque  timber  churches  in  various  parts  of  the 
land  bear  sufficient  witness  to  the  early  development  of 
plastic  gifts  among  the  people.  Furthermore,  amid  the 
large  quantity  of  foreign  things  adorning  the  medieval 
Norwegian  stone  churches,  one  can  find  a  considerable 
number  of  sculptures,  particularly  an  array  of  portrait-like 
heads  anci  masks  in  the  cathedral  at  Trondhjem,  which 
may  be  assumed  to  be  the  accomplishment  of  native 
craftsmen. 

On  the  submergence  of  our  political  independence,  how- 
ever, the  national  traditions  were  broken  also  in  this  sphere, 
and  art  life,  no  less  than  culture  in  its  other  phases,  sank 
back  during  subsequent  centuries  into  a  wretched  state.  Yet 
the  old  prepossession  and  the  old  talent  for  artistic  wood- 
carving  continued  to  be  transplanted  among  the  rural  popula- 
tion in  several  localities,  and  notably  during  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  reached  a  respectable  height.  It 
must  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  neglected  condition  in  which 
Norway  found  herself  under  Danish  rule  that  the  generous 
and  prevalent  gift  for  wood-carving  among  the  country  folk 
failed  to  assume  nobler  shapes  in  sculpture  of  an  essentially 
Norwegian  character. 

The  only  one  of  the  rustic  wood-carvers  of  Norway  who 
managed  to  lift  himself  to  the  status  of  a  really  trained  artist, 
an  artist  of  no  mean  rank,  was  Magnus  Berg,  who  later 
became  a  painter  and  a  carver.  His  technically  finished  work 
in  Ivory  Is  rated  with  the  best  performances  of  the  baroque 
age.  Yet  the  nation  was  robbed  of  his  vigorous  resources, 
too,  since  he  placed  them  at  the  service  of  the  king  of  Den- 


616  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

mark,  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  days  in  Copenhagen,  and 
died  there  in  1739. 

Of  rustic  birth,  like  Magnus  Berg,  was  also  Hans  Michel- 
sen,  the  first  Norwegian  sculptor  in  the  period  following 
upon  the  separation  from  Denmark,  and  for  a  long  time  the 
only  one.  Michelsen  was  born  in  1789  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Trondhjem,  where  he  lived  first  as  a  farmer  and  later  as  a 
soldier  until,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  following  urgent  advice, 
he  journeyed  to  Stockholm  in  order  to  employ  his  unusual 
talent  for  wood-carving  in  efforts  to  become  a  sculptor.  It  is 
certain  that  Michelsen's  gifts  aroused  the  highest  public  ex- 
pectations. Perhaps  these  expectations  took  shape  in  the 
anticipatory  dream  that  he  might  at  some  future  time  grow 
to  be  an  artist  whose  reputation  would  throw  a  reflected 
splendor  over  his  culturally  indigent  native  land,  a  glory  like 
that  which  Sergei  had  brought  to  Sweden  and  Thorvaldsen 
to  Denmark.  Evidence  of  such  a  hope  appears  in  the  govern- 
ment support  which  Michelsen  received,  even  during  his 
apprenticeship  in  Stockholm,  and  which  fell  to  his  lot  for  a 
series  of  years  while  he  sought  farther  training  in  Thor- 
valdsen's  workshop  in  Rome.  Yet  when  Michelsen  returned 
home,  after  a  decade  of  study  abroad,  he  was  presently  made 
to  feel  keenly  to  what  a  degree  it  was  the  vanity  of  the  nation 
and  not  its  love  of  art  that  had  held  up  his  hands  through  this 
long  period  of  preparation.  As  matters  stood  at  the  time, 
economic  exigencies  and  intellectual  limitations  combined  to 
render  sculpture  superfluous  in  our  country.  The  prospect 
of  finding  employment  in  the  decoration  of  the  palace  at 
Christiania,  which  was  then  being  erected,  had  lured  Michel- 
sen to  Norway  from  Rome.  Even  the  very  building  opera- 
tions, however,  came  to  a  standstill  for  seven  years  by  reason 
of  the  lack  of  funds;  the  mere  thought  of  adorning  the  edi- 
fice was  necessarily  still  more  remote.  Some  attempts  were 
made  to  find  a  place  for  the  unemployed  sculptor  as  a  teacher 
at  the  School  of  Design  in  Christiania,  but  even  here  there 
was  no  need  for  his  services.  No  recourse  appeared  open 
to  him. 

Consequently,  In  1828,  he  found  his  way  back  to  Stock- 


MODI'.RN  NORWI'.CryXN   ART  617 

liolii),  w  luTC  lie  Ii:ul  s|>(,'ii(  scNcral  h;ipi)y  }c;irs  as  an  appren- 
tice aiul  where  iti  loniier  clays,  at  all  e\eiUs,  he  had  enjoyed 
(he  patronage  of  men  of  suhstance.  On  his  arrival,  as 
misfortune  would  have  it,  he  learned  that  his  old  benefactor 
Peder  Anker,  secretary  of  state,  was  dead  and  that  he  was 
himself  quite  forgotten.  In  order  to  gain  his  daily  bread  he 
was  compelled  to  work  as  a  marble-cutter  in  the  ateliers  of 
Swedish  sculptors.  His  spare  hours  he  devoted  to  carrying 
out  his  own  designs.  It  was  not  until  1833  that  he  was  able 
to  summon  his  energies  for  the  outstanding  achievement  of 
his  life.  In  Rome  he  had  seen  Thorvaldsen's  figures  of  the 
apostles  take  form,  and  they  must  evidently  have  left  a  deep 
impression  upon  him.  Still  they  cannot  have  fully  satisfied 
his  ideals,  since  he  felt  impelled  to  try  his  luck  with  the  same 
subjects. 

The  figures  of  the  Apostles,  executed  for  the  cathedral  at 
Trondhjem,  are  characterized  throughout  by  the  contem- 
porary tendency  toward  the  antique  and  toward  abstract 
Idealism,  and  show  no  evidence  whatever  of  an  effort  to  adapt 
the  style  of  the  statues  to  that  of  their  architectural  back- 
ground. They  are  a  series  of  normal  figures,  most  properly 
to  be  described  as  drapery  figures,*  in  which  the  artist  by 
means  of  unnecessarily  abundant  folds  in  the  antique  garb 
has  managed  to  attain  a  certain  pompous  and  dignified  effect. 
Yet  not  one  of  them  carries  the  stamp  of  personal  feeling  or 
expresses  any  positive  individuality. 

The  apostles,  nevertheless,  found  general  approval  in 
Norway  as  well  as  in  Stockholm,  and  they  even  opened  for 
their  creator  the  doors  of  the  Swedish  Academy  of  Art. 
Despite  this  success  Michelsen  was  unable  to  gain  a  perma- 
nent position  in  Stockholm.  After  several  years  of  the  most 
miserable  existence,  he  came  to  the  conviction,  in  1841,  that 
there  was  no  other  egress  from  his  unhappy  situation  than  to 
give  up  all  notions  of  sustaining  himself  by  his  art,  and  ac- 
cordingly he  returned  to  his  native  heath  and  resumed  his 
labor  in  the  fields  and  his  wood-carving. 

Some  years  later  the  poet  Johan  Sebastian  Welhaven  set 
on  foot  a  subscription  for  the  purpose  of  placing  a  commis- 


618  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

sion  with  the  aging  artist.  Once  more  Hans  MIchelsen  took 
up  his  chisel,  and  finished  a  bust  of  Holberg,  which  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Christiania.  In  1850 
he  was  entrusted  with  the  execution  of  four  Statues  of  Old 
Norse  Kings,  designed  for  Oscarshal.  These  works,  how- 
ev^er,  demonstrate  all  too  plainly  that  only  pitiful  remnants 
were  left  of  the  talent  upon  which  Thorvaldsen  had  passed 
so  favorable  a  verdict  thirty  years  before.  Finally,  in  1859, 
provision  was  made  to  free  the  septuagenarian  artist  from 
the  most  carking  financial  cares  by  proposing  on  his  behalf 
a  small  government  pension.  Before  the  grant  could  be 
arranged,  however,  Hans  MIchelsen  died. 

It  was  not  until  1850,  when  King  Oscar  I  ordered  the 
building  and  the  adornment  of  his  little  summer  palace, 
Oscarshal,  that  the  artists  of  Norway  received  their  first 
official  commission.  On  this  occasion  we  meet  a  new  sculptor, 
Christopher  Borch,  who  was  charged  with  the  composition  of 
a  brace  of  reliefs  upon  motives  from  Fridthjof's  Saga  and  a 
series  of  decorative  heads  intended  to  represent  personalities 
from  medieval  Norway.  Borch  was  born  In  Drammen  In 
1 8 17.  Equipped  with  experience  In  carpentry  and  wood- 
carving  he  had  for  a  time  sought  higher  training  at  the 
Academy  of  Art  in  Copenhagen,  until  eventually  he  decided 
to  become  a  sculptor  and  entered  Bissen's  atelier. 

While  MIchelsen  reflected  in  his  art  the  classicism  of 
Thorvaldsen,  Borch  represented  that  national  romanticism 
which  in  subsequent  years  colored  intellectual  life  with  fresh 
idealism.  The  best  feature  in  his  art  is  just  the  pure-hearted 
and  simple  enthusiasm  with  which  he  seized  upon  the  patriotic 
and  religious  ideals  of  the  period.  Only  too  often,  neverthe- 
less, his  works  lost  their  pristine  energy  and  ardent  feeling 
as  they  took  shape  beneath  his  hand.  He  was  most  success- 
ful in  two  statues  with  Biblical  themes,  The  Daughter  of 
Jephthah,  and  David  and  Shulamite.  Yet  none  of  his  pro- 
ductions possesses  personality  and  vigor  of  form.  There  is 
a  smooth  and  patent  commonness  about  everything  that  he 
has  done. 

Borch's  circumstances  and  his  artistic  career,  it  might  well 


MODKRN  NORWFXilAN  ART  619 

he  s:ii(l,  fell  in  pleasant  places  as  compared  with  the  lives  and 
lortunes  of  two  contemporary  sculptors,  Hans  Hansen  and 
Hans  Biklal.  1  laiisen,  after  some  years  of  study  in  Copen- 
hagen and  a  longer  sojourn  in  Rome,  passed  his  latter  days 
in  Christiania,  where,  finding  practically  no  means  of  liveli- 
hood, he  secluded  himself  in  shyness  and  poverty,  and  died 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-seven.  Budal,  like  most  of  the 
other  Norwegian  sculptors,  was  of  rustic  origin  and  to  begin 
with  a  wood-carver.  From  Jerichau's  atelier  in  Copenhagen 
he  proceeded  in  1861  to  Rome,  and  there  he  remained  ten 
years,  continuously  struggling  with  the  most  abject  want. 
At  the  Scandinavian  Exposition  in  Stockholm  in  1866  he 
exhibited  a  Christ  Upon  the  Cross  and  two  genre  figures, 
which  in  all  their  simplicity  gave  telling  evidence  of  his 
artistic  abilities.  His  bust  of  Karl  XV  Is  in  the  National 
Gallery.  The  last  years  of  his  life  he  spent  at  home,  poor 
and  forgotten.     He  died  In  1879. 

Nor  did  the  two  succeeding  artists,  Gloslmodt  and  Flad- 
ager,  both  country  boys  and  wood-carvers,  ever  manage  to 
reach  the  sunny  side.  Gloslmodt,  a  pupil  of  the  Academy 
of  Art  In  Copenhagen,  passed  the  better  part  of  his  time 
in  the  Danish  capital.  Little  by  little  he  gave  over  his  activ- 
ities as  a  sculptor  In  favor  of  his  Increasing  capacity  for 
beautiful  carving  In  ivory  and  box-wood.  The  busts  of  Tide- 
mand  and  Gude  In  the  National  Gallery  are  by  Gloslmodt. 
A  man  of  more  adaptable  talent  was  Fladager,  who  likewise 
received  his  artistic  schooling  In  Copenhagen,  and  later  in 
Rome.  Among  his  works  may  be  mentioned,  in  addition  to 
certain  busts,  the  Baptismal  Angel  In  Our  Saviour's  Church 
In  Christiania,  and  his  David,  strongly  touched  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Thorvaldsen  and  yet  rather  fine,  which  now  Is  In  the 
National  Gallery. 

In  the  person  of  MIddelthun  we  meet  at  last  a  sculptor  of 
the  purest  talent,  a  talent  with  which  are  associated  both 
intelligence  and  nobility  of  soul.  Though  many  causes  com- 
bined to  narrow  the  range  of  his  art,  It  still  comprises  works 
that  belong  with  the  most  magnificent  things  produced  In 
Norway.     Julius    MIddelthun  was   born   at   Kongsberg   in 


620  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

1820  as  the  son  of  a  coin  engraver.  The  younger  man  prac- 
tised the  trade  of  goldsmith  until  he  was  enabled  to  enter 
Bissen's  atelier  in  Copenhagen.  His  stay  in  the  Danish  city 
continued  through  an  entire  decade.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Bissen  and  the  inspiration  of  the  exalted  idealism  in  the 
art  of  Thorvaldsen  he  grew  to  be  what  he  was  in  very  deed: 
an  artist  in  whose  endeavors  the  most  honest  observation 
of  reality  is  united  with  a  distinguished  and  clarified  percep- 
tion of  beauty.  Above  all  else  he  cultivated  and  held  in 
honor  a  thoroughly  elaborated  form. 

Upon  the  Copenhagen  period  there  followed  for  Mid- 
delthun  an  extremely  significant  sojourn  of  eight  years  in 
Rome,  during  which  he  acquired  a  deep  and  intense  under- 
standing of  the  spirit  and  the  eloquent  forms  of  antiquity. 
Yet  from  this  time,  as  from  the  time  he  studied  in 
Copenhagen,  we  have  very  few  examples  of  his  power.  An 
insatiable  receptivity  and  an  exaggerated  humility  in  the 
presence  of  great  models  appear  to  have  overmastered  him 
and  to  have  restricted  his  productiveness.  After  his  return 
to  Norway  Middelthun  became  somewhat  more  prolific;  still 
he  never  became  really  fluent  in  expression.  His  sedulously 
reflective  sense  of  form  prevented  him  from  ever  being 
wholly  satisfied  with  his  results.  It  seemed  as  if  a  profound 
respect  for  his  art  had  conspired  with  a  natural  timorous- 
ness  to  deter  him  from  laying  his  boaster  aside  and  facing 
courageously  a  finished  piece  of  work. 

Middelthun's  art  leaves  the  collective  impression  that  he 
was  first  and  foremost  a  splendid  portraitist.  His  synthetical 
imagination  was  much  less  developed  than  his  psychological 
instinct  and  his  penetrating  sense  of  form — which  are  the 
qualities  best  fitted  for  the  demands  of  portraiture.  Never- 
theless, it  was  not  in  the  first  Instance  his  feeling  for  the 
outwardly  characteristic  that  made  him  a  prominent  artist 
In  this  field.  Almost  all  of  his  portraits  are  the  fruit  of  a 
certain  Intuitive  grasp  of  the  personality  of  the  subject.  To 
cause  the  soul  to  gleam  through  the  features  of  a  face  was 
his  steadfast  purpose. 

Thoroughly  permeated  with  such  an  admiring  intent  is 


MOI)l',RN  NORWFXiIy\N  ART 


621 


Bust    of    the    Poet    Welhaven,    by    Julius 

Middelthun.        In     the     Students'      Union, 

Christiania 


Middelthun's  soulful  bronze  bust  of  Halfdan  Kjerulf  in 
the  pretty  little  square  In  Christiania  that  bears  the  com- 
poser's name.  Before  producing  this  work  Middelthun 
executed,  about  i860,  the  two  marble  busts  of  Wergeland 
and  Welhaven  that  now  have  a  place  in  the  assembly  room 
of  the  Students'  Union  in  Christiania.  In  the  bust  of  Werge- 
land Middelthun  has  tried  to  seize  the  ecstatic  enthusiasm, 
the  high-spirited  confidence  of  Wergeland's  nature.  He  has 
succeeded  only  in  part.  Quite  lacking  in  the  bust  are  that 
power  and  that  force  one  expects  to  find  in  the  author  of  The 
Creation,  Man,  and  the  Messiah.  In  the  bust  of  Welhaven, 
on  the  other  hand,  Middelthun  has  penetrated  to  the  very 


622  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

heart  of  personality.  It  is  evident  that  the  artist  has  felt  an 
intimate  spiritual  kinship  with  certain  phases  of  Welhaven's 
creative,  poetic  genius.  His  representation  reveals  a  soul 
freed  from  earthly  dross.  Yet  on  those  features  there  still 
remain  palpitating  traces  of  the  conflicts  that  have  raged 
within.  The  attitude  is  firm,  severe;  the  eye  steady,  com- 
pelling; the  brow  smooth,  commanding.  That  calm  clarity 
of  reason  which  Welhaven  strove  throughout  life  to  attain  is 
now  visible  in  his  countenance.  Only  about  the  full  and 
broadly  modelled  lips  there  still  remain  the  quivering  evi- 
dences of  a  vehement  spirit,  the  signs  of  an  Irascible  love  of 
battle,  the  tokens  of  a  venomous  wit.  Yet  out  of  the  depths 
of  his  being  shines  the  light  of  his  eyes,  manly  and  quiet, 
proud  and  gentle,  as  of  one  who  discerns  beyond  the  pro- 
foundest  sadness  the  precious  meanings  of  life. 

The  last  large  task  that  Middelthun  had  to  fulfill  was  the 
execution  of  a  monument  to  Professor  Anton  Martin 
Schweigaard  on  the  University  grounds.  It  was  unveiled  in 
1883.  In  reality  Middelthun's  talent  was  perhaps  of  too 
intimate  a  character  to  adapt  itself  readily  to  monumental 
sculpture.  For  him  the  bust  was  a  much  more  suitable  vehicle 
of  portraiture  than  the  monumental  statue.  Nevertheless, 
even  if  the  Schweigaard  statue  is  not  quite  happy,  it  is  still 
free  from  the  common,  bombastic  monumental  effect;  it  is 
restrained  and  beautifully  conceived.  More  than  that,  the 
real  value  of  the  statue  is  in  the  head  itself,  in  the  open,  trust- 
worthy countenance  with  its  clean-cut  features,  its  warm, 
clear  glance,  and  its  wise  half-smile.  Among  Middelthun's 
other  works  mention  should  be  made  of  the  brilliant  bust  of 
Wessel*  in  the  National  Gallery  and  the  excellent  marble 
bust  of  the  Eidsvold  man,t  Jacob  Aall,  in  the  same  place. 
Middelthun  died  at  Christiania  In  1886,  sixty-six  years  of 
age.  Neither  during  his  life  nor  after  his  death  has  his  talent 
been  estimated  at  its  intrinsic  value. 

*Johan  Herman  Wessel,  a  satirical  poet,  born  in  Norway  but  resident  in 
Copenhagen,  who  died  in  1785.  His  best  known  work  is  the  witty  comedy, 
Love  Sans  Stockings. 

fA  member  of  the  contituent  assembly  in  Eidsvold  at  the  time  when  Norway 
severed  her  political  connection  with  Denmark  in  1814. 


M()1)1":RN   NORWrXilAN   ART  r,23 

( )f  ail  artistic  nature  wliolly  clilfci-ciU  Trom  that  of  Micldcl- 
ihuii  was  IJrynjuir  lk'rjj,slicn,  his  junior  hy  ten  years.  In 
Hergslien's  nati\e  endowments  tlie  g()\erning  characteristic 
was  a  jaunty  and  fcsti\c  breadth  of  mind.  His  capacity  for 
work  was  Huent  and  vigorous,  his  form  full  and  supple,  and 
at  times  hold.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  the  mul- 
tifarious and  casual  production  to  order,  which  his  active  and 
easy  nature  led  him  into,  came  in  the  course  of  time  to  exert 
a  destructive  influence  upon  his  artistic  discrimination,  and 
sank  his  later  performances  down  to  a  level  of  smooth  in- 
sipidity where  the  distance  between  the  good  and  the  bad  is 
extremely  short.  None  the  less,  in  the  palmy  days  of  his 
talent  Bergslien  gave  to  Christiania  the  best,  the  most  festive, 
the  most  effective  monumental  statue  we  possess. 

Brynjulf  Bergslien  was  born  in  Voss  in  1830,  and  belongs 
to  a  country  family  with  highly  developed  artistic  leanings. 
Bergslien  became  a  pupil  of  Bissen  in  Copenhagen,  and  in 
that  capacity  he  was  entrusted  with  the  task  of  rendering 
Thorvaldsen's  Jason  and  his  Hope  in  marble  for  the  Thor- 
valdsen  Museum.  Bergslien  remained  in  Copenhagen  eight 
years,  and,  like  all  of  the  older  Norwegian  sculptors,  he 
owed  much  to  the  tuition  of  Danish  masters.  After  a  subse- 
quent stay  in  Rome  he  returned  to  Norway,  where  he  lived 
thenceforth.  It  was  in  the  design  for  an  equestrian  monu- 
ment to  Carl  Johan  in  1868  that  Bergslien's  talent  first 
reached  complete  maturity;  on  this  occasion  he  carried  off  the 
prize  in  a  competition  with  a  Norwegian,  a  Swedish,  and  a 
French  sculptor.  The  French  marshal,  chosen  king,  is  pre- 
sented in  the  act  of  acknowledging  the  plaudits  of  his  people, 
bearing  himself  royally  upon  a  mettlesome,  caracoling 
charger.  The  silhouette  of  the  monument  serves  effectually 
its  adorning  purpose  in  its  elevated  position  on  the  terrace  of 
the  spacious  palace  yard;  the  horse  particularly  is  ener- 
getically modelled,  and  with  feeling  for  decorative  effect. 

Two  years  after  this  successful  work  Bergslien  was  com- 
missioned to  execute  the  statue  of  Henrik  Wergeland  for  the 
Students'  Park  in  Christiania.  In  this  case,  however,  his  tal- 
ents failed  him  to  an  almost  astounding  degree.    Here,  where 


624  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

the  problem  was  not  only  that  of  attaining  an  external  deco- 
rative quality  but  of  giving  a  characteristic  representation  of 
the  personality  of  a  man  of  genius,  Bergslien  disclosed  the 
limitations  of  his  art.  It  is  very  difficult  to  find  in  this 
theatrical  figure  the  least  trace  of  Wergeland's  proud  and 
ardently  poetic  soul. 

It  was  unfortunate,  therefore,  that  it  did  not  fall  to 
Bergslien's  lot  to  create  the  statue  which  more  than  any  other 
was  suited  to  his  gifts  and  for  which  he  had  made  an  excellent 
model,  now  in  the  National  Gallery — the  monument  to  the 
founder  of  the  city  of  Christiania,  Christian  IV.  There  is 
authority  and  magnificent  poise  about  this  royal  father  of  his 
country  who  points  out  with  his  riding  whip  the  future  loca- 
tion of  the  capital  city,  and  there  is  humor  in  the  characteriza- 
tion of  his  corpulent  figure.  Still  Bergslien's  design,  which 
had  breadth  and  freshness  of  form,  was  rejected  as  too 
realistic,  in  favor  of  one  far  less  significant.  Bergslien  has 
produced,  in  addition,  a  number  of  decorative  pieces,  and  in 
the  course  of  years  a  quantity  of  busts  to  order,  of  which 
those  of  the  singing  master  Behrens  and  of  Sven  Foyn  proba- 
bly are  the  best. 

Bergslien's  successful  competitor  in  the  design  for  the 
statue  of  Christian  IV  was  Carl  Jacobsen,  who,  like  the 
earlier  Norwegian  sculptors,  received  his  artistic  training  in 
Denmark.  Jacobsen  turned  out  to  be  an  upright  artist,  who 
always  gave  industriously  and  conscientiously  what  there 
was  in  him  to  give.  As  a  portrait  sculptor  he  became  very 
popular,  but  It  is  especially  the  two  public  monuments  he 
produced  which  must  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  his  powers. 
The  bust  of  Wessel,  erected  in  heroic  proportions  in  front 
of  the  building  of  the  Norwegian  Society  in  Christiania,  is 
the  least  considerable  of  them,  and  is  inferior  to  MIddelthun's 
statue  of  Wessel.  More  notable  Is  his  statue  of  Christian  IV 
on  the  market-place  in  Christiania;  It  was  unveiled  in  1880. 
This  Is  a  carefully  executed,  but  not  particularly  original, 
historical  costume-figure;  a  comparison  will  hardly  demon- 
strate its  superiority  to  Bergslien's  model. 

In  all  of  the  artists  who  have  been  mentioned  above  there 


MODERN  NORWFXilAN  ART  625 

nre  traces,  in  a  greater  or  lesser  number  of  their  worlds,  of  the 
lingering  echoes  of  Danish  classicism,  an  influence  to  be 
expected  since  they  had  all  spent  their  apprentice  years  in 
Danish  ateliers.  Not  until  the  se\  cnties  tlid  a  new  company 
of  artists  appear  who  had  received  their  first  schooling  on 
their  native  soil,  and  whose  understanding  of  their  function 
had  little  or  nothing  in  common  with  the  classical  or  romantic 
idealism  of  the  older  generation.  The  realistic  and  natural- 
istic view  of  art  which  for  a  long  time  had  been  manifesting 
itself  in  Europe,  and  more  especially  in  L'rance,  now  began 
to  win  a  foothold  in  Norway  as  well.  After  a  fiery  struggle 
in  the  eighties  between  the  champions  of  the  older  and  the 
newer  conceptions,  the  men  of  the  younger  generation,  with 
their  realistic  vision,  become  the  true  representatives  of  our 
national  art  life.  Though  the  cleavage  between  the  old  and 
the  new  is  less  noticeable  in  sculpture  than  in  painting,  a 
change  is  clearly  discernible;  and  from  this  time  forth  it  is 
no  longer  in  the  direction  of  the  plastic  traditions  of  Den- 
mark, but  in  the  direction  of  modern  German  and,  still  more, 
modern  French  sculpture  that  the  coming  artists  turn  their 
eyes. 

Stephan  Sinding,  Mathlas  Skeibrok,  and  Soren  Lexow- 
Hansen  all  began  as  pupils  of  Middelthun;  later,  however, 
each  of  them  followed  a  path  of  his  own,  and  none  of  them 
came  to  adhere  very  closely  to  the  tendencies  of  their  first 
master. 

Stephan  Sinding,  who  was  born  at  Roros  in  1846,  belongs 
to  an  artistically  gifted  family.  After  a  period  of  study 
under  Wolf  In  Berlin,  and  after  having  shown  a  statue  at  the 
Universal  Exposition  In  Paris  In  1878,  Sinding  attacked  in 
Rome  the  great  group  which  made  him  famous :  A  Barbarian 
Woman  Carrying  Her  Son  Off  the  Battlefield,  now  In  the 
Glyptothek  at  Copenhagen  and  In  the  National  Gallery  at 
Chrlstlanla.  It  Is  a  gruesome,  sanguinary  mood  from  the 
time  of  the  migration  of  the  peoples  that  the  artist  has  sought 
to  express  In  this  violently  agitated  group,  the  old  Hunnlsh 
woman  and  the  son  whom  she  Is  dragging  away  from  the  field 
of  battle.     While  the  detailed  treatment  of  form  does  not 


626 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Barbarian  Woman  Carrying  Her  Son  off  the  Battle- 
field, by  Stephan  Sinding.     In  the  National  Gallery 


measure  up  to  the  level  of  the  energetic  linear  construction 
of  the  composition,  the  Barbarian  Group  is  nevertheless  an 
extremely  effective  piece  of  work  on  the  part  of  a  man  of 
notable  plastic   talent.     The   Barbarian   Woman   is    really 


M(M)1<:RN   NORWEGIAN  ART  627 

Sindlntr's  masterpiece.  Never  siiuc  lias  liis  pi-odiiction  at- 
tainetl  sueli  a  heifrht. 

As  eaid)'  as  (he  lii'st  years  ol  the  ei}j,hlirs  Siiiiliiijj;  eslah- 
lislietl  liiinself  in  Copenhaj^en,  where  he  loiiiui  an  ardent 
admirer  and  a  generous  Mcrcenas,  wlio  t;a\e  him  se\eral 
hirge  commissions.  His  works  arc  therefore  in  the  main  to 
he  looked  for  in  the  Glyptothek  at  Copenhagen,  a  collection 
assemhled  and  sustained  by  the  Danish  brewer,  Carl  Jacob- 
sen.  After  having  composed  a  rather  extensive  decorative 
frieze  for  the  Glyptothek,  Sinding  summoned  his  forces  about 
a  series  of  groups  which,  like  the  Barbarian  Woman,  draw 
their  themes  from  the  greatest  and  most  elemental  emotions. 
The  mother  burying  her  son,  the  man  embracing  a  woman, 
the  mother  nursing  her  child,  the  widow  grieving  at  her  hus- 
band's death — these  are  the  subjects  of  The  Barbarian 
Group,  Two  Human  Beings,  The  Captive  Mother,  and  A 
Woman  Beside  Her  Husband's  Body,  An  artist  who  sets 
himself  tasks  so  exacting  as  these  wants  neither  courage  nor 
high  confidence  in  his  own  powers.  Motives  the  most  deserv- 
ing of  artistic  consecration — love  and  death — Sinding  has 
made  the  object  of  his  supreme  endeavors.  One  cannot 
escape  the  impression,  however,  that  he  has  approached  his 
problems  with  somewhat  conspicuous  temerity.  There  Is  no 
suggestion  that  he  has  had  any  fear  for  the  results.  Not- 
withstanding all  that  is  effective  and  striking  In  the  subjects, 
or  In  the  composition  of  these  groups,  they  are  not  among 
the  works  of  art  that  seize  our  deepest  feelings.  Perhaps  It 
is  because  the  purpose  Is  too  manifest,  and  also  because  the 
treatment  of  the  form  Is  as  a  rule  too  fugitive,  either  alto- 
gether too  bulging  or  altogether  too  smooth,  seldom  pene- 
trating and  sharp. 

Best  In  linear  power,  yet  noticeably  affected.  Is  The  Cap- 
tive Mother,  a  young  and  shapely  woman,  who  with  hands 
bound  at  her  back  Is  kneeling  on  the  ground  and  offering  her 
breasts  to  the  hungry  lips  of  her  child.  The  theme  Is  old  and 
well  known  from  the  art  of  Rubens.  Two  Human  Beings 
presents  a  nude  man  and  a  nude  woman  meeting  In  embraces 
and  kisses.    At  the  time  when  Two  Human  Beings  appeared 


628  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

there  was  to  be  found  in  Norwegian  painting  but  one  picture 
with  an  erotic  subject,  and  that  one  picture  was  Tidemand's 
Courtship.  At  that  time  there  was  to  be  found  in  Norwegian 
sculpture  but  one  nude  female  figure,  and  that  one  was 
Borch's  Shulamite.  These  two  facts  are  patent  evidence 
that  Sinding's  Two  Human  Beings  represented  a  daring 
achievement;  and  it  will  always  be  to  Sinding's  greatest 
artistic  credit  that  he  had  the  impulse  and  the  will  to  give  an 
exposition  of  love  which  hid  behind  no  pretext,  which  sought 
justification  in  no  mythological  or  paradisaical  title. 

Two  Human  Beings,  on  its  first  appearance,  was  received 
with  varying  emotions.  Even  those  who  originally  felt  ad- 
miration for  the  daring  idea  embodied  in  the  group  must  now, 
on  seeing  it  after  the  lapse  of  years  cast  in  bronze  in  the 
National  Gallery,  recognize  its  obvious  weaknesses.  It  is 
an  embrace  which  is  intended  to  be  seen  and  marvelled  at  as 
the  plastic  solution  of  a  new  and  difficult  problem,  a  solution 
that  seems  to  be  the  result  of  painstaking  deliberation,  a  solu- 
tion In  which  the  first  fine  rapture  of  the  artist  appears  to  have 
cooled  considerably  during  the  process  of  execution.  Besides, 
the  group  is  less  vigorous  on  its  formal  side  than  the  earlier 
groups.  From  the  point  of  view  of  composition  the  stooping 
attitude  has  a  labored  and  rather  clumsy  effect,  the  propor- 
tions of  the  figures  are  doubtful,  and  the  treatment  of  sur- 
faces has  neither  sharpness  nor  marked  character. 

The  decrease  in  energy  of  form  Is  unfortunately  still  more 
noticeable  In  later  works  by  Sindlng.  The  portrait  statues  of 
Bjornson  and  Ibsen  which  have  been  placed  before  the 
National  Theatre  bear  only  too  unmistakable  witness  of  the 
falling  off  In  his  art,  and  they  should  in  kindness  be  mentioned 
with  the  utmost  brevity.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the 
creator  of  The  Barbarian  Woman  could  possibly  produce 
anything  so  empty  and  so  lacking  in  taste  as  these  caricatures 
of  the  two  poets,  In  which  even  the  portrait  likeness  has  been 
missed  completely.  More  recent  works  by  Sindlng  belong 
rather  to  Denmark  and  Germany  than  to  Norway. 

Mathias  Skelbrok  was  born  in  Lister  in  185 1.  After 
spending  some  time  in  Jerichau's  atelier  In  Copenhagen,  he 


MODRRN  NORWFXJTAN  ART  620 

came  to  Paris  in  1S76  upon  a  ^oN'cniiiicnt  allowance,  and 
rcniaincil  (here  lour  years.  At  the  Universal  Exposition  of 
187.S  he  exhibited  his  first  larger  piece,  Ragnar  Lodhrok  in 
the  Serpents'  Den,  which  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  National 
Gallery.  There  are  intlieations  that  when  the  artist  began 
this  work  he  had  some  sort  of  concept  of  a  Northern  Prome- 
theus, the  embodiment  of  strength  and  power  writhing  under 
restraining  bonds.  The  necessary  anatomical  studies,  how- 
ever, proved  to  be  so  arduous  for  the  youthful  and  conscien- 
tious sculptor  that  they  robbed  him  of  much  of  the  vitality 
which  should  have  gone  into  the  execution  itself.  The  result 
came  to  be  a  very  muscular  figure  of  a  man,  who  writhes  in 
pain  and  yet  whose  anguish  cannot  touch  us  deeply  because 
our  emotional  reaction  is  constantly  disturbed  by  fresh  dis- 
coveries of  protruding  muscles. 

During  these  earlier  years  of  his  career  Skeibrok  executed 
a  series  of  half-size  statuettes,  principally  upon  historical 
themes,  such  as  Tjostolf  Aalesen,  Snorre,  and  The  Outlaw. 
More  profoundly  treated  than  these  historical  subjects  are 
Skeibrok's  plain  and  simple  representations  of  episodes  from 
daily  life,  the  two  genre  statuettes  :  Mother  is  Watching,  and 
Weary.  The  last-named  work  is  by  and  large  the  foremost 
fruit  of  Skeibrok's  talent,  intensely  conceived  and  carefully 
finished.  It  is  a  very  unassuming  representation  of  a  young 
country  girl  overpowered  by  weariness.  Relaxed  in  sleep  the 
youthful,  half-dressed  woman  is  resting  with  her  arm  over 
the  back  of  a  chair  and  her  head  inclined  heavily  upon  her 
shoulder.  The  figure  is  to  be  found  in  several  Norwegian 
collections,  among  them  the  National  Gallery,  and  also  in 
private  galleries. 

Until  a  short  time  before  his  death  In  1896  Skeibrok  was 
occupied  for  a  series  of  years  with  the  largest  artistic  prob- 
lem of  his  career,  the  decoration  of  the  great  pediment  of 
the  University  main  building.  The  composition  shows 
Athene  endowing  with  soul  the  man  to  whom  Prometheus 
has  given  body.  An  allegory  of  this  kind  was  certainly  not 
suited  to  Skeibrok's  temperament,  nor  did  such  spacious  and 
decorative  work  accord  well  with  his  talents. 


630 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Skeibrok's  production  as  a 
portraitist  was  very  compre- 
hensive. He  executed  busts 
of  a  large  number  of  our 
most  prominent  celebrities, 
such  as  Edvard  Grieg  and 
Bjornson,  Johan  Sverdrup 
and  Soren  Jaabaek,  Ernst 
Sars  and  Doctor  Danielsen, 
Laura  Gundersen  and 
Johanne  Reimers,  and  many 
others.  Skeibrok's  busts  are 
serious  pieces  of  work,  but 
usually  dry  and  hard  as  to 
form.  The  best  among  them 
is  without  question  the 
heroic,  powerfully  formed 
portrait  head  of  Eilert 
Sundt,  which  adorns  a  public 
square  in  Christiania.  One 
side  of  Skeibrok's  winning 
personality,  which  brought 
him  many  friends,  but  which 
was  totally  dissociated  from 
his  activities  as  a  sculptor, 
was  his  vigorous  humor  and 
his  original  gifts  as  a  racon- 
teur. 

The  most  finely  equipped 
of  the  three  artists  who  re- 
ceived their  first  training  in 
Middelthun's  atelier  was  per- 
haps Soren  Lexow-Hansen, 
who  was  born  at  Eker  in 
1845.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, he  appears  to  have 
inherited  from  his  master  not  only  a  deep  reverence  for  art 
but  also  a  certain  shrinking  attitude  toward  production  and 


Vala  Rising   from  the  Sea,  by  Soren 

Lexow-Hansen.        In      the      National 

Gallery 


MODKRN  NORWF-r.IAN  ART  631 

a  lack  of  sclf-confulcncc.  After  Lcxow-I  lansen  by  his  Vala 
had  gi\cii  tnidcncc  ol  considerable  powers,  he  created  noth- 
ing whatexer,  so  far  as  juiblic  knowledge  may  deterniine. 
The  graxity  and  might  of  Ivldic  poetry  rest  upon  the  aged 
seercss  Vala  as  she  steps  forth  li-oin  the  fogs  of  the  North 
Sea,  attenuated  and  forbidding,  and  bears  witness  to  what 
she  knows,  that  the  world  which  consumes  itself  in  strife  and 
petty  obstinacy  shall  perish,  gods  and  men  alike.  Lexow- 
Hansen  died  in  19 19. 

To  what  a  degree  Norwegian  sculpture  in  general,  during 
the  years  when  Norwegian  painting  was  at  its  zenith,  wanted 
strength  to  carry  out  a  monumental  task  and  lacked  com- 
pletely the  ability,  particularly  so  far  as  the  younger  sculptors 
were  concerned,  to  shape  so  much  as  a  human  figure,  we  have 
distressing  proof  In  the  competitions  for  two  public  memo- 
rials. One  of  these — for  the  statue  of  Holberg  In  Bergen — 
resulted,  and  with  absolute  justice.  In  the  awarding  of  the 
commission  to  a  foreign  artist.  The  other — for  the  monu- 
ment to  Tordensklold  In  Chrlstiania — was  a  positive 
scandal  to  Norwegian  sculpture,  manifesting  Itself  In  a 
group  of  ludicrous  models  totally  destitute  of  talent,  while 
the  painter  Axel  Ender,  whose  model  was  superior  to  all 
the  others,  even  technically,  carried  off  the  prize  and  the 
commission.  His  notably  effective  and  decorative  statue 
was  erected  In  1901. 

On  the  whole,  with  a  few  exceptions,  there  Is  not  much  to 
be  said  for  the  younger  Norwegian  sculptors.  Of  those  who 
arose  In  the  artistically  stirring  period  of  the  eighties,  when 
the  naturalists  were  fighting  out  their  battle  with  the  epigoni 
of  romanticism  and  with  a  stiff-necked  public,  Fjelde  went  to 
America,  where  he  worked  and  died.  Utne  went  to  Berlin, 
where  he  became  a  decorator  and  remained  for  several  years, 
until  he  returned  home  to  take  part  in  the  adornment  of  the 
National  Theatre,  while  the  most  gifted  of  them,  Halfdan 
Hertzberg,  a  practising  physician,  who  threw  himself  en- 
thusiastically Into  the  struggle  for  naturalism  and  exhibited  a 
few  things  indicating  both  personality  and  talent,  died  before 
his  powers  were  much  more  than  half  developed. 


632  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

Among  those  who  have  lived  at  home  there  is  Anders  Svor, 
who  has  followed  his  art  honestly  and  seriously  under  difficult 
conditions  and  who,  particularly  in  the  statue  of  a  nude  young 
girl,  has  produced  a  piece  of  work  deserving  of  mention  for 
its  sincerity;  and  finally,  there  is  Jo  Visdal,  who  perhaps  more 
than  any  of  the  others  has  made  himself  representative  of  this 
generation  of  naturalists  through  his  portrait  busts.  A  nota- 
ble example  is  his  thoughtfully  studied  and  characteristic  bust 
of  old  Head  Master  Knudsen,  by  which  Visdal  gained 
deserved  recognition. 

Between  the  art  of  Gustav  Vigeland  and  contemporary 
sculpture  in  Norway  there  is  a  great  gulf.  More  than  that, 
the  entire  production  of  Norwegian  sculpture,  viewed  in  per- 
spective, has  subordinate  value  as  compared  with  his  genius. 
Gustav  Vigeland  was  born  near  Mandal  in  1869.  Never  in 
Norwegian  art  have  imagination  and  a  sense  of  form  been 
united  to  such  a  degree  as  in  his  work.  Yet  that  which  more 
than  all  else  gives  to  his  artistic  achievements  their  imperisha- 
ble quality  is  the  strong  individuality  and  the  wealth  of  ideas 
expressed  in  them.  Very  seldom  have  art  and  life  been  more 
intimately  joined.  As  confessions  of  the  joy  and  the  anguish 
of  living  his  sculpture  has  overflowed  all  the  bounds  of  artistic 
objectivity. 

In  reality  Vigeland  cannot  be  said  to  be  the  disciple  of  any 
particular  master.  He  has  had  no  regular  and  systematic 
artistic  schooling.  He  has  made  brief  visits  to  Bergslien's 
and  Skeibrok's  ateliers  and  spent  a  year  in  Bissen's  workshop 
in  Copenhagen,  yet  not  in  the  capacity  of  an  actual  pupil.  On 
the  whole,  Middelthun  alone  among  Northern  sculptors 
appears  to  have  had  a  positive  influence  upon  his  develop- 
ment. The  distance  betwen  the  two,  however,  and  their  dis- 
similarities as  to  temperament  and  talent  are  sufficiently 
obvious.  Vigeland  has  learned  more  through  travel  than  by 
any  other  means.  He  has  traveled  much,  seen  much,  and 
ruminated  more  than  most  artists.  Vigeland  came  to 
maturity  during  the  naturalistic  and  impressionistic  periods  in 
Norwegian  painting.  Nevertheless  he  undoubtedly  feels 
himself  to  be  in  opposition  to  the  older  generation.     Only 


MODKRN   NORVVl'XilAN  AKV  633 

with  Munch  docs  he  show  a  certain  relationsliip.  On  the 
whole,  Vigchmd  staiuls  and  will  always  stand  apart. 

Vif^eland's  art  is  lirst  and  ahove  all  an  unfolding  of  im- 
agination. The  art  of  the  eighties  and  of  the  itninediately 
succeeding  period  was  in  the  main  concerned  with  realities. 
Its  aim  was  objectivity;  it  sought  after  environment  and  local 
color.  Vigcland's  aim  is  the  uncompromisingly  personal, 
regardless  of  enviroment;  still  he  seeks  in  the  personal  always 
the  universal,  that  Avhich  is,  and  changes  not.  None  the  less, 
Vigeland  owes  something  to  the  naturalists,  something  of  dis- 
tinct value.  He  is  himself  a  naturalist  as  to  form,  and  his 
ability  in  composition  stands  on  the  shoulders  of  impression- 
ism and  from  this  point  of  vantage  discovers  new  plastic  pos- 
sibilities. A  relief  composed  on  such  lines  as  his  Hell — the 
chief  work  from  Vigeland's  youth — would  have  been  incon- 
ceivable before  the  days  of  impressionism.  With  its  power- 
ful perspective  effects,  its  foreshortening  and  cross-cutting 
and  the  picturesque  play  of  shining  projections  and  deep 
shadows,  this  relief  is  almost  infinitely  removed  from  the 
classic  relief  style  and  is  predicated  upon  the  Impressionistic 
movement. 

Although  a  long  series  of  youthful  works  precede  this 
gigantic  relief,  which  comprises  some  two  hundred  figures,  it 
would  seem  as  if  most  of  those  early  pieces,  among  them  the 
life-size  group  Accursed,  in  the  National  Gallery,  the  reliefs 
entitled  The  Judgment  Day,  The  Horse  of  Death,  The 
Drunkards,  and  various  minor  groups,  were  only  prepara- 
tory studies  by  means  of  which  the  creator  of  Hell  made 
experiments  and  improved  his  manual  dexterity.  In  this 
work  he  rids  himself  of  the  speculation  of  his  youth,  of  his 
Westland  pietism,  and  of  the  bitter  moods  engendered  by 
years  of  struggle.  After  he  has  finished  it,  his  production 
becomes  more  serene,  more  contemplative,  more  unassuming 
in  the  choice  of  subjects,  more  heartfelt  in  character,  more 
noble  as  to  form.  The  Hell  was  first  executed  in  1894  and 
was  entirely  remodeled  after  a  journey  to  Italy  in  1 897.  The 
relief,  in  bronze,  is  to  be  found  in  the  National  Gallery. 

That  hell  which  Vigeland  depicts  in  this  work  is  not  so 


634  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

much  the  place  of  torment  after  death  as  it  is  a  modern  pes- 
simist's emotional  and  affecting  poem  about  life  itself  and 
sins  against  life.  This  hell  has  to  do  with  the  fetters  of  sense, 
with  the  froth  of  the  passions,  with  self-surrender  and  suicide. 
In  a  giddy  maelstrom  the  victims  of  all  forces  inimical  to  life 
circle  around  the  very  principle  of  evil — Satan  enthroned, 
firm  as  the  rock  upon  which  he  sits.  It  is  a  raging  surf  of 
billowing  humanity  that  tosses  at  his  feet,  bodies  intertwined 
with  each  other,  clinging  to  each  other  with  unslaked  desire, 
with  hate,  with  satiety.  They  foam  up  about  his  limbs  in  a 
combing  wave  of  clasped  arms,  of  bowed  necks,  of  beseeching 
glances.  Over  the  bridge  of  good  intentions  tumble  ever 
renewed  throngs  down  into  an  engulfing  sea  of  vices.  And 
behind  the  prince  of  darkness,  in  the  dry,  sultry  air  that  fills 
this  domain  of  egotism,  hover  unceasingly  the  yearning  multi- 
tudes driven  on  by  unsatisfied  desires,  until  the  rabble  is  lost 
beyond  the  hill  of  the  suicides,  where  dead  men  and  men 
still  living  dangle  in  their  nooses  upon  the  gallows.  Above 
these  rolling  waves  of  doomed  humanity  that  lap  his  feet,  sits 
the  Evil  One  upon  his  rocky  throne,  insensible  to  it  all,  petri- 
fied in  the  horror  of  complete  realization  of  self.  For  him 
there  is  no  submission,  no  redemption.  He  is  himself 
supreme,  the  most  evil  among  the  evil,  unchangeable,  eternal. 
He  rests  his  jaws  in  his  hands  and  sinks  back  upon  himself, 
sharing  with  none  the  joy  of  his  sufferings. 

Into  Vigeland's  conception  of  beauty  naturalism  has 
poured  the  beneficent  drop  of  gall.  As  in  the  case  of  Dona- 
tello  and  of  Rembrandt,  what  men  call  the  hideous  appears  in 
the  function  of  a  subordinate  element  of  his  art.  No  one  has 
more  passionately  sought  after  what  is  characteristic,  shunned 
what  is  bland,  despised  smoothness,  distrusted  softness.  His 
figure  style  betrays  hatred  of  all  rococo  forms  in  past  and 
present  art. 

Vigeland's  earlier  figures  possess  the  most  extreme  slender- 
ness  and  an  accentuated  boniness  of  structure  which  fre- 
(}uently  even  verges  on  attenuation.  He  takes  delight  in  the 
wealth  of  surfaces  upon  a  cranium;  he  is  attracted  to  hollow 
temples,  to  angular  jaws.     His  plastic  ideal,  at  any  rate  in 


MOni-:RN   NORWI'X.IAX   y\Rr  635 

this  period  of  his  youth,  was  ihc  man  wilh  narrow  iiips,  sliarp 
shoulders,  ami  prominent  smews,  and  the  woman  with  a  mas- 
eiiline  leanness  of  outline.  I  lis  figures  arc  always  nude. 
Costumes  and  attributi\e  dexiees  arc  practically  unknown  in 
his  art.  Moreoxer,  since  action  is  to  his  mind  the  most  sig- 
nilicant  thing — action  expressixe  of  deed,  of  thought,  of  soul 
— the  bony  framework  Is  for  him  the  most  important  feature 
of  the  human  body. 

Love  has  a  large  place  in  Vigeland's  productions.  The 
mystery  of  sex,  the  struggle  between  sex  and  thought  are  the 
profoundest  motives  in  his  imaginative  art.  Upon  these 
themes  he  has  created  a  long  series  of  plastic  poems,  groups 
of  men  and  women  to  which  he  has  given  no  other  title  than 
Man  and  Woman. 

At  first  all  of  these  groups  were  less  than  half  size,  and 
designed  to  be  cast  In  bronze;  more  recently  several  of  them 
have  been  elaborated  to  full  life  size  In  the  same  material. 
Some  of  these  groups  are  to  be  found  In  Thiel's  Gallery  in 
Stockholm ;  one  alone,  A  Man  Holding  a  Woman  Upon  His 
Knees,  Is  in  our  National  Gallery. 

These  compositions  deal  with  life  in  its  mutual  relations. 
Some  are  Instinct  with  the  joy  of  submission,  and  others  with 
the  discord  that  sunders  lovers :  on  the  one  hand,  the  kiss, 
the  embrace,  the  child  as  the  tie  that  binds ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  doubt,  the  jealousy,  the  moodiness  that  divide  and  isolate. 
They  deal  with  the  ecstasies  of  love  and  with  the  rebellion  of 
reason  against  the  senses,  with  tender  emotions  and  agonizing 
inward  conflicts,  with  the  renunciation  of  life  itself  in  bound- 
less longing  for  spiritual  peace. 

For  beyond  the  veil  of  shifting  sensuous  moods  this  art 
discerns  the  illimitable,  the  eternal.  The  loves  of  these  men 
and  women  vibrate  above  a  metaphysical  sounding-board  of 
doubts  and  premonitions  that  attune  even  gaiety  itself  to  a 
minor  key.  All  that  is  joyous,  all  that  is  sorrowful  in  their 
human  lot  takes  on  a  higher  potency  at  the  thought  of  death, 
and  so  their  fear  of  the  unknown  lends  to  each  momentary 
feeling  a  deep  passionateness. 

Vigeland's  imaginative  art  is  not  the  whole  of  his  art.     In 


636 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Bust  of  Professor  Sophus  Bugge,  by  Gustav 
Vigeland.     In  the  National   Gallery 

the  course  of  the  years  he  has  produced  a  large  number  of 
busts,  which  together  constitute  a  veritable  portrait  gallery 
of  prominent  Norwegians.  A  majority  of  the  men  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  above  the  ordinary  run  by  their 
talent  in  art,  science,  or  politics  he  has  modelled  from  life. 
To  enumerate  them  all,  from  Ibsen  and  Bjornson  to  Nansen 
and  Johannes  Steen,  would  require  too  much  space. 

With  the  touch  of  genius  he  seizes  the  predominant  char- 
acter in  a  face,  and  with  poetic  force  builds  up  about  it  a  soul, 


MODERN  N()RWr:(;iAN   ART  637 


Bust  of  the  Painter  Emmanuel  Vigeland,  by 
Gustav   Vigeland.     In  the   National   Gallery 


a  personality.  His  portrait  art,  although  completely  nat- 
uralistic as  to  form,  is  principally  marked  by  intuitive  psycho- 
logical power.  The  tempo  of  the  nerves,  the  hotness  or  slug- 
gishness of  the  blood,  the  firmness  or  softness  of  the  will — 
all  that  which  others  merely  suspect  or  glimpse  vaguely  in  a 
face,  and  which  is  the  core  of  personality,  the  brilliant  por- 
traitist calls  forth  from  the  conformation  of  a  head  or  the 
lines  of  a  facial  mask  and  draws  it  to  his  heart  in  sympathy 
or  thrusts  it  aside  with  aversion. 

In  Vigeland's  case  the  work  has  almost  without  exception 
been  based  upon  sympathy  with  the  subject.  In  hardly  a 
single  instance  has  he  executed  a  portrait  bust  to  order.  He 
has  himself  chosen  his  sitters.  Witness  the  head  of  Bjornson, 
in  the  National  Gallery,  seized  in  a  moment  of  extreme  vigor, 
self-confidently  poised  upon  a  neck  as  strong  as  a  bull's, 
sparkling  with  intellect  and  will.  Witness  further  the  head 
of  Sophus  Bugge,  the  thinker,  with  its  remarkably  inward 


638  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

and  absent  expression;  his  glance  is  introspective,  but  like  a 
forge  raised  above  the  workshop  of  his  thought,  the  hair 
lifts  itself  in  the  semblance  of  an  aspiring  flame  above  his 
lofty  brow.  Or,  look  at  Ibsen's  marmoreal  head,  like  a  jut- 
ting cliff,  the  very  image  of  concentration  upon  an  inmost 
self;  and  Garborg's  brooding  physiognomy  with  its  haggard 
features  and  affecting,  sorrowful  eyes.  Further,  note  the 
vivacious  face  of  Gunnar  Heiberg,  with  wit  and  sensibility 
playing  about  the  mouth  and  eyes,  and  with  self-confidence 
written  upon  the  forehead.  And  finally,  observe  the  excel- 
lent bust  of  the  sculptor's  young  brother,  Emmanuel  Vige- 
land,  clean  and  noble  of  outline  as  a  Greek  ivy-crowned  head, 
and  with  youthfulness  and  warmth  in  his  lips.  The  greater 
number  of  these  busts  are  now  In  the  National  Gallery,  in 
very  deed  a  series  of  portraits  which,  in  a  twofold  sense,  our 
people  may  be  proud  of. 

During  the  years  that  have  passed  since  the  opening  of  the 
new  century  Vigeland  has  been  chiefly  occupied  with  monu- 
mental problems:  the  monument  to  Abel,  erected  in  1908; 
the  statue  of  Wergeland,  set  up  at  Christianssand  in  1908; 
the  statues  of  Nordraak  and  of  Camilla  Collett,  both  dating 
from  191 1.  Throughout  the  last  seven  or  eight  years  the 
artist  has  been  working  upon  the  masterpiece  of  his  life,  The 
Fountain. 

The  monument  to  the  mathematician  Nils  Henrik  Abel 
has  taken  shape  as  an  apotheosis  of  the  inspired,  creative 
mind  in  its  half  unconscious  soaring.  Borne  aloft  by  dimly 
perceived  forces,  hardly  realized  by  himself,  the  young  hero 
of  thought  flies  through  space,  his  countenance  resplendent 
with  understanding,  his  vision  piercing  the  fog,  and  his  nude 
body  rising  in  triumphant  assurance  that  the  goal  is  near. 
Formal  objections  might  be  made  against  the  aesthetic 
effectiveness  of  the  group  in  its  present  setting,  delineated 
freely  as  it  is  upon  the  open  sky  and  lacking  as  the  silhouette 
is  in  the  proper  repose,  and  one  might  have  to  admit  that  the 
colossal  design  gives  evidence  both  of  the  difiiculty  of  the 
problem  and  the  youthfulness  of  the  artist.  Nevertheless, 
no  one  with  any  appreciation  of  quality  in  art  can  remain 


MODl'KN   NORWI'.C.IAN    Akl  639 

insensible  to  the  brilliant  thou^lil  ami  llu'  dai-iii^  composition 
which  distinguish  the  nionunicnt.  in  \  Iceland's  production 
the  7\bel  ^roup  staiuis  as  a  milestone  between  his  early  period 
with  its  storm  and  stress  and  the  pci-iod  ol  thorough  maturity, 
in  certain  respects  it  denotes  a  completion;  in  other  resj)ects, 
a  fresh  be<2;innin<^. 

While  Vigeland's  passionate  art  was  before  touched  by  a 
dry,  hectic  heat,  as  of  a  consuming  fire,  rather  than  charac- 
terized by  the  superabundance  of  a  mature  mind,  there  has 
come  over  his  work  in  later  years  increased  plenitude  and 
repose.  The  feverishness  and  the  mirky  vision  of  youth  have 
given  way  to  harmony  and  love  of  beauty  in  the  grown  man. 
What  was  painful  in  his  art  has  been  overcome  by  what  is 
pleasing.  In  agreement  with  this  changed  view  of  life,  his 
figure  style  has  undergone  a  transformation.  His  earlier 
style  was  marked  by  a  palpable  aversion  from  amplitude  of 
form.  Already  in  the  first  years  of  the  new  century,  however, 
a  foreshadowing  departure  is  to  be  noted  in  his  figure  style. 
In  1905  I  pointed  out.  In  a  written  discussion  of  the  matter, 
that  later  works  and  studies  Indicated  that  the  typical  manner 
of  his  youth  was  taking  on  new  features,  that  It  was  develop- 
ing Into  something  stronger  and  fuller,  that  his  style  through- 
out was  becoming  more  vigorously  rounded  than  before. 

This  maturing  process  began  with  The  Fountain.  In  the 
Abel  group  the  artist's  one-sided  tendency  toward  naturalistic 
methods  of  fashioning  his  subjects  reaches  Its  extreme  limit. 
The  Impressionistic,  picturesque  treatment  of  surface  and  the 
Inchoate,  restless  forms  yield  in  recent  works  to  a  more 
beautiful,  ripe,  and  classical  style. 

As  yet.  It  Is  true,  The  Fountain,  upon  which  VIgeland  has 
been  working  with  untiring  Titanic  creative  energy  these 
many  years,  Is  a  good  way  from  completion,  and  In  so  far  lies 
outside  the  scope  of  this  review.  So  much,  none  the  less,  can 
assuredly  be  said  on  the  basis  of  such  studies  and  finished 
portions  as  he  has  permitted  outsiders  to  see,  that  the  work 
will  be  Vigeland's  masterpiece  and  a  unique  achievement  In 
the  history  of  modern  sculpture.  It  will  be  a  mighty  synthesis 
of  his  art  and  his  philosophy  of  life,  a  bronze  hymn  of  life, 


640 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Detail  for  Fountain,  by  Gustav  Vigeland 


infinitely  rich  and  changing  as  life  itself,  so  expressed  in  art 
that  thought  may  grasp  it.  Here  are  men,  women,  and 
children — nude,  appearing  singly  and  in  groups,  resting, 
struggling,  yearning,  loving,  sorrowing;  now  passionately 
moved,   storm-driven  and  tossed  about  by  emotions,   now 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  641 


Detail  for  Fountain,  by  Gustav  Vigeland 

sunk  in  musing  and  in  dreams.  Man  and  woman  meet  each 
other  beneath  the  crowns  of  these  fabled  trees,  the  throng  of 
the  unborn  floats  like  a  cloud,  like  a  presage  through  the 
leaves,  and  against  the  trunk  leans  heavily  one  who  is  weary 


642 


SCANDINAVIAN  ART 


Detail  for  Fountain,  by  Gustav  Vigeland 

of  days.  This  Is  life  itself,  from  the  time  it  wells  forth  till 
it  sinks  away.  In  another  tree  death  bides  his  hour,  crouched 
among  the  boughs. 

Yet  what  is  the  idea  of  this  work  without  its  wealth  of 
forms!  What  are  descriptive  words  in  comparison  to  the 
varying  rhythms  of  line,  the  beautiful,  living,  bodily  contours. 
It  is  in  this  work,  still  inaccessible  to  the  public,  that,  so  far 
as  I  may  judge  from  what  I  have  seen,  the  great  transforma- 
tion in  Vigeland's  style  has  taken  place,  the  transformation 
that  has  been  mentioned  above  and  which  also  has  manifested 
itself  in  a  few  other  original  works,  contemporaneous  with 


MODERN  NORWEGIAN  ART  643 


Torso   of  a  Woman,  by  Gustav  Vigeland.     In  the   National   Gallery 

The  Fountain,  that  of  late  years  have  come  from  his  work- 
shop. The  most  significant  of  these  pieces  are  the  group  in 
marble,  Mother  and  Child,  recently  acquired  by  the  Art 
Museum  in  Copenhagen,  and  the  splendid  Torso  of  a 
Woman,  also  in  marble,  which  is  reproduced  here  from  the 


644  SCANDINAVIAN  ART 

original  in  the  Norwegian  National  Gallery.  Both  of  these 
works  are  based  upon  older  studies  on  a  smaller  scale.  In  this 
torso  of  a  woman  with  a  pure  and  proud  countenance,  almost 
as  severe  as  that  of  a  goddess,  and  with  a  body  captivatingly 
young  and  beautiful  as  that  of  any  daughter  of  earth,  and  in 
this  youthful  mother  kneeling  with  her  little  boy  in  her  arms 
— a  piece  wherein  the  contrast  between  the  woman's  soft, 
mature  body  and  the  boy's  thin,  angular,  undeveloped  form 


Young    Man,    by    Ingebrigt   VIk.      In    the 
National  Gallery 

resolves  itself  into  the  most  melodious  play  of  lines — in  both 
of  these  Vigeland's  art  has  reached  the  height  of  its  growth. 
The  younger  Norwegian  sculptors,  with  a  very  few  excep- 
tions, cannot  be  said  to  have  cast  fresh  glory  upon  their  art 
and  their  country.  A  series  of  public  competitions  for  various 
larger  commissions,  and  notably  the  hopeless  effort  to  pro- 


M0I)I:RN  NORWFXilAN   ART  645 

vide  a  satisfactory  design  for  an  Kidsvold  monument,  have 
given  distressing  evidence  of  the  lack  of  capacity  to  deal  with 
monumental  problems.  As  a  consoling  exception  one  man 
ci7ierges  above  the  common  level,  Ingebrigt  Vik. 

Born  in  Hardanger  in  1867,  he  is  no  longer  to  be  reckoned 
among  the  very  young ;  nevertheless,  it  is  only  in  recent  years, 
after  a  persistent  struggle,  that  his  art  has  broken  a  way  to 
real  success.  For  a  considerable  time  external  circumstances 
compelled  him  to  employ  his  powers  in  pure  handicraft  as  a 
modeller  of  decorations  or  in  those  purheus  of  art,  wood- 
carving  and  ivory-carving.  However,  after  several  winters 
at  the  Academy  of  Art  in  Copenhagen,  after  some  years  of 
study  in  Paris — under  the  guidance  of  Injalbert  in  1902  and 
under  his  own  initiative  from  1907  to  1910,  and  after  a  jour- 
ney to  Italy  in  1906,  he  unfolded  his  talents  freely  and 
maturely  in  a  series  of  nude  statues  in  marble  and  bronze. 
For  the  most  part  it  is  the  undeveloped  forms  of  very  young 
girls,  the  gently  rounded  shapes  of  children,  and  the  slender, 
lithe  figures  of  youths  which  have  especially  attracted  him. 
In  works  such  as  the  two  marble  statues  of  a  sitting  and  a 
standing  nude  young  girl,  now  in  the  National  Gallery,  and 
still  more  in  the  lovely  bronze  statue  of  a  Narcissus-like 
youth,  signed  19 13  and  also  to  be  found  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery, he  reveals  a  sense  for  calm,  classical  beauty  that  is 
unique  in  Norwegian  art ;  he  reveals  as  well  a  tender  solicitude 
for  the  most  refined  graduations  in  form  which  marks  Vik  as 
one  of  the  most  prominent  men  In  later  Norwegian  art. 


INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Aagaard,  C.  F.,  1 833-1 895 313 

Aarsleff,  Carl,  1852-1918 414 

Abildgaard,  N.  A.,  1743-1809 22,  1 13,  241-243,  393 

Achen,  Georg,  1860-1912 346 

Acke,  J.  A.  G.,  1 859- 1 70 

Adelcrantz,  Karl  Fredrilc,  17 16-1796 84,  85,  86,   110 

Ahlgren,  Olof,  1 876- 221 

Als,  Peder,  1726-1776 241 

Ancher,  Fru  Anna,  1859- 328-330 

Ancher,  Michael,  1849- 326,  327-330,  515 

Anderberg,  Axel,   i860- 225,  226 

Andersen,   Valdemar,    1875- 389 

Ankarcrona,  Gustav,  1869- 201-202 

Arbo,   N.  P.,   1831-1892 473-475 

Arborelius,  Olof,  1842-1915 141 

Arenius,  Olof,  1701-1766 85 

Arosenius,  Ivar,  1878-1909 205-206 

Askevold,  Anders,  1855-1900 472 

Astrup,   Nicolai,    1880- 610 

Aumont,  Louis,  1805-1879 263 

Baade,  Knud,  1808-1879 448 

Bache,   Otto,    1 839- 315-316 

Backer,  Harriet,  1845- 485,  488,  527,  550-554 

Baerentzen,  Emilius,  1 799-1 868 263 

Baerentzen,  Thomas,  1869- 415 

Balke,  Peder,  1804-1887 470 

Bauer,  John,  1882-1918 18,  204 

Baumann,    Povl,    1878- 431 

Beck,  David,  1621-1656 66 

Behm,  Vilhelm,  1859- 172-173 

Benckert,  Elis,   1881-1913 234 

Bendz,  Vilhelm,   1 804-1 832 256,  257,  258,  260 

Bentsen,  Ivar,   1876- 431 

Berg,  Axel,  1856- 430 

Berg,  Magnus,  1666-1739 27,  438-439,  615-616 

647 


648  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Berg,  Yngve,  1887- 206 

Bergh,  Edvard,   1828-1880 16,   135-136,   173 

Bergh,  Richard,  1858-1919 I73-I75 

Bergslien,   Brjmjulf,    1 830-1 898 33,  623-624,  632 

Bergslien,  Knut,   1 827-1908 473 

Bergstrom,  Alfred,   1869- 173 

Bergstrom,   Sigge,    1880- 204 

Bindesboll,  M.  G.,  1800- 1856 424-426,  429 

Bindesboll,  Thorvald,  1846-1908 24,  370 

Birger,  Hugo,   1854-1887 166 

Bissen,  H.  V.,  1798-1868 408-412,  413,  618,  620,  623 

Bissen,  Rud.,  1846-1911 318 

Bissen,  Vilhelm,  1836-1913 412,  413 

Bjerg,  Johs.,  1886- 418 

Bjerre,   Niels,    1864- 353 

Bjorck,  Oscar,   i860- 1 70-1 72 

Blache,  Christian,  1838- 1920 318 

Bloch,  Carl,  1834-1890 286-288,  316 

Blom,  Fredrik,  1781-1853 116 

Blommer,  Nils  Johan,  1816-1853 16,   125 

Boberg,  Anna,    1864- 19,  202 

Boberg,   Ferdinand,    i860- 19,   186,  228-230 

Bodom,  Erik,  1 829-1 879 472 

Boklund,  Johan  Kristofer,  1817-1880 132 

Bonnesen,  Carl,  1868- 415 

Borch,  Christopher,   1817-1896 618-619,  628 

Borch,  Leuning,   1853-19 10 430 

Borch,  Martin,   1852- 430 

Borjeson,  John,  1836-1910 207-208 

Bouchardon,  Jacques-Philippe,  1711-1753 77 

Bourdon,  Sebastien,  1616-1671 66 

Boyesen,  Rostrup,   1882- 39i 

Brandstrup,  Ludvig,  1861- 414,  415 

Brasen,  Hans  Ole,  1849- 335 

Bratland,  Jacob,   1859-1906 485,  571,  575 

Breda,  Karl  Fredrik  von,  1759-1818 15,   104-105 

Brendekilde,  Hans  Andersen,   1857- 353 

Brendstrup,  Thorald,  1812-1883 282 

Brummer,  Carl,  1864- 430 

Budal,  Hans,  1830-1879 619 


]N]V'.X  TO  ARTISTS  r,40 

\'Ar,h 

|{iinilii,;i;ii(l,    Amlcis,     I S64  - 415 

JiuiU/.iMi,  I  Iciiiiirli,  lS().^I<S()2 2H2 

Hystniin,  joli.iii   Niklas,    I7,S.^I,S4S iif)ii';,    122 

C-Aluwyvv,  J;u(.li,    1S02-1884 4S2 

C;ip|u-lcii,   Aiijiiist,    1827-1852 2<j,   .^2,   4SS.   4^>^'-4^"^-   47" 

Carlhcrg,  johan  KhiThanl,  i()8.M77.^ 8s,   80 

Carlscn,  Schlichriiifj;,   1852     ^.•iT 

Carstfiis.  Jakob  Asiiuis,    1754-17'^'^ 21,   24S,   V).^,   394-   3W 

Cedcrstrom,   Gustaf,    1845- 149-150 

Christensen,   Christen,    1806-1845 406 

Christensen,    Godfred,    1845- 317 

Christiansen,  Poul,  1855- 3^7^  3<^<^ 

Christiansen,    R.,    1863- 353 

Clason,  Isac  Gustav,  1856- 19,  227 

Clausen,  Ludvig,  185 1 -1904 430 

Clement,  Gad,  1867- 382-383 

Clemmensen,  A.  L.,    1852- 430 

Collett,   Fredrik,   1839-1913 30,  465,  482-483,  532,  542 

Conradsen,   Harald,    181 7-1905 406 

Dahl,  Johan  Christian  Clausson,  1 788-1 857 

21,  28,  439,  439-448,  450,  452,  454,  455,  464,  472,  479,  481,  604 

Dahl,  Mikael,  1666-1743 84 

Dahl,   Siegwald,    1827-1902 472 

Dahlbergh,  Erik,  1625-1703 64,  66,  67 

Dahlerup,  Vilhelm,  1 836-1907 428 

Dalgas,  Carlo,  1820-1850 310 

Dall,  Hans,  1862-1920 357 

Dalsgaard,  Christen,  1 824-1907 22,  295-298,  299,  409 

Deberitz,  Per,   1880- 32,  604,  612 

Desmarees,  Georg,    1 697-1 776 84 

Desprez,  Jean-Louis,   1737-1804 no,   114 

Diriks,  Karl  Edvard,  1855- 30,  542,  555-557 

Dorph,  Anton,  1831-1914 301 

Dorph,  Bertha,    1875- 382 

Dorph,  N.  v.,  1862- 351-352 

Dreyer,  Dankvart,  1816-1852 311,  312 

D'Uncker,  Karl,  1828-1866 128 

Eckersberg,  ChristofEer  Vilhelm,  1 783-1 853.  .  .  .21,  22,  24,  241,  245 

246,  247-269,  280,  281,  282,  283,  294,  314,  389,  406,  450,  453 
Eckersberg,  Johan  Fredrik,   1822-1870 470-471,  473,  542 


650  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Eddelien,  Heinrich,   1803-1852 256,  267 

Edstrom,  David,  1873- 215,  216 

Egedius,  Halfdan,   1877-1899 31,  532,  540,  593-595,  601 

Ehrenstrahl,  David  Klocker  von,  1629-1698 

15,  21,  69,  70,  71-72,  83,  84,   162 

Ehrensvard,  Karl  August,  1745-1800 102,  103,   113 

Eiebakke,  August,   1867- 575-576 

Eigtved,  Nikolai,   1 701-1754 421,  422 

Ekenaes,  Jan,  1847-1920 485 

Ekstrom,  Per,  1844- 157-158 

Eldh,  Carl  J.,   1873- 214-215 

Elgstrom,   Ossian,    1883- 18,  203 

Ender,  Axel,   1 853-1920 631 

Engelsted,  Malthe,    1852- 343 

Engstrom,   Albert,    1869- 18,  205-206 

Engstrom,  Leander,   1886- 18,  205 

Erdmann,  Axel,  1873- 203 

Erichsen,  Edv.,  1876- 415 

Erichsen,  Thorvald,  1868- 31,  597-600,  601,  603 

Erichsen,  Vigilius,  1 722-1 782 241 

Ericson,  Sigfrid,  1879- 235 

Eriksson,  Christian,  1858- 19,   175,  211-213,  232 

Eugen,  Prince,   1865- 

17.  I9»  155)  156,  157,  170,  171,  179-182,  184,  186,  226,  230,  234 

Evens,  Otto,   1 826-1 895 413 

Exner,  Julius,  1825-1910 22,  297,  298-300 

Fagerlin,  Ferdinand,    1825-1907 16,   128-129 

Fahlcrantz,  Karl  Johan,  1774-1861 120,   121,  445 

Fearnley,  Thomas,   1802-1841 29,  32,  445-448,  452,  454,  604 

Fenger,   Ludvig,    1833-1905 429 

Find,   Ludvig,    1869- 383-384 

Fisker,  Kay,   1 893- 43 1 

Fjaestad,  Gustav,  1868- 17,  202 

Fjelde,  Jakob,  1859-1896 631 

Fladager,  Ole,  1832-187 1 619 

Flintoe,  Johan,    1 786-1 870 449-450 

Fogelberg,  Bengt  Erland,   1786-1854 118,   119 

Folkestad,  Bernhard,   1879- 31,  609-610 

Forsberg,  Nils,  1842- 148-149 

Foss,  Harald,  1843- 312 


INDEX  TO  ARTISTS  651 

PAGE 

Frc'uiul,  IIciiiKiii  Ernst,  1786-184(1 25,  26.5,  290,  403-406 

Erich,  I.  C,  18 10- 1858 311,  448-449 

Friis,  Hans,  1839- 1892 3^3 

Erisch,  I.  D.,  1 835-1 867 311 

Eritz,  A.,  1828-1906 313 

Eritzsch,  Claudius  Ditlev,  1 763-1 841 246 

Erolich,  Lorens,  1 820-1908 283-286,  371 

Erydensberg,  Carl,  1872- 357 

Gauguin,  Jean,  1881- 418 

Gebauer,  Christian  David,  1 777-1831 246 

Gerle,  Aron,  i860- 196 

Gertner,  Johan  Vilhelm,  1818-1871 282 

Giersing,  Harald,   1881- 24,  391 

Gjorvvell,  Karl  Kristofer,  1 766-1837 116 

Gloersen,  Jacob,  1852-1912 485,  542,  557-559 

Glosimodt,  Olaf,  1821-1897 619 

Gorbitz,  Johan,  1 782-1 853 451-452 

Gothe,  Erik  Gustav,  1 779-1838 1 19-120 

Gottschalck,  Albert,   1866-1906 357 

Grande,    Severin,    1869- 604 

Gronvold,  Bernt,  1859- 485 

Gronvold,   Marcus,    1845- 485 

Griinewald,  Isaac,  1889- 18,  205 

Grut,  Torben,   1871- 235 

Gude,  Hans,   1825-1903 

27,  29,  454-466,  479,  480,  482,  483,  484,  619 

Gurlitt,    Louis,    1812-1897 283 

Haavardsholm,  Erojdis,  1896- 603 

Hagborg,  August,   1852-1921 157,   166 

Hall,  Peter  Adolf ,  1739-1793 15,  94,  95 

Hallstrom,   Gunnar,    1875- 202-203 

Hammer,  H.  I.,  1815-1882 293 

Hammershoi,  Svend,   1873- 385-386 

Hammershoi,  Vilh.,   1864-1916 23,  346-349 

Hansen,   Axel,    1853- 414 

Hansen,  Chr.,   1803-1883 427 

Hansen,  Chr,  Er.,  1 756-1845 423 

Hansen,  Constantin,  1 804-1 880 

21,  256,  263,  264-266,  290,  363,  371,  406 

Hansen,  Elise  Constantin,  1858- 373 


652  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Hansen,   Hans,    1 727-1 803 246 

Hansen,   Hans,    1821-1858 619 

Hansen,  Hans  Nik.,  1853- 335 

Hansen,    Heinrich,    1821-1890 312 

Hansen,   Henning,    1880- 431 

Hansen,  Niels,   1880- 391 

Hansen,  Peter,   1868- 23,  388,  389 

Hansen,  Theophilus,  1813-1891 427 

Hansen-Jacobsen,  Niels,  1861- 25,  415-416 

Harleman,   Karl,   1700-1753 48,   76,  80,   162 

Harsdorff,  Caspar  Frederik,   1735-1799 422-423,  424 

Hartmann,  Oluf,  1879-1910 382 

Haslund,  Otto,  1842-1917 342,  343 

Hasselberg,  Per,   1850-1894 166,  208-210 

Hasselriis,  Louis,  1844-1912 413 

Haupt,  Georg,  1741-1784 83,  96,   loi 

Hausser,  Elias  David,  1685- 1745 421 

Hedberg,  Erik,  1868- 201 

Heiberg,   Jean,    1884- 32,  612 

Hellqvist,  Carl  Gustaf,  1851-1890 150 

Helsted,  Axel,  1847-1907 343,  344 

Hennig,  Otto,  1871- 604 

Hennigs,  Gosta  von,  1866- 198 

Henning,  Gerhard,  1880- 221 

Henningsen,   Erik,    1855- 344 

Henningsen,  Frants,  1850-1908 344 

Herholdt,  Johan  Daniel,  1818-1902 427-428 

Hertervig,  Lars,   1 830-1902 27,  468-470 

Hertzberg,  Halfdan,  1857-1890 631 

Hertzog,  F.  G.,  1821-1892 411,  413 

Hesselbom,  Otto,  1848-1913 17,  202 

Hetsch,  Gustav  Frederik,  1 788-1 864 423-424,  426 

Heyerdahl,  Hans,  1857-1913 .  .30,  485,  486,  491-496,  527,  551,  580 

Hilker,  G.  Christian,   1 807-1875 265,406 

Hill,  Carl,  1849-1911 157 

Hillestrom,  Per,  the  Elder,  1732-18 16 lOi,   102 

Hjortzberg,  Olle,  1872- 202,  230,  235 

Hockert,  Johan  Fredrik,   1826-1866 16-17,   136-13^ 

Holbech,  Niels  Peter,  1 804-1 889 263 

Holbo,   Kristen,    1869- 603 


INDI'.X  TO  AR'I'ISTS  r,53 

I'AC.K 

ii.iiiM,  nil.,  1X04-1846 282 

1  lolm,    I  laiis  j.,    iH.VS-i<Ji6 2S,   420 

Holm,  Haraia,  1866  - 387 

Holmboc,  Tliorolf,  1866    31,  4f)S,  S77-S7'; 

Holmgren,  Herman,  1 842-1 V14 224 

Holsoe,  Carl,   1863- 345,  346 

Holtcn,  Sofie,  1858- 33S 

Holten,  Fru  Susette,  1863- 373 

Horberg,  Per,   1746-18 16 K)i 

Hornemann,  Christian,  1765- 1844 246 

Hiillgren,  Oscar,   1869- 202 

Hun^us,  Andreas  Herman,  18 14-1866 263 

Hygom,  Louis,   1879- 431 

listed,  Peter,  1861- 346 

Ingemann,  Bernhard,  1869- 430 

Ingwersen,  Jens,  1871- 430 

Irminger,  V.,   1850- 343-344 

Isaachsen,   Olaf,   1 835-1 893 473,  475-476 

Jacobsen,   August,    1868- 604 

Jacobsen,  Carl  Ludvig,  1835- 624 

Jacobsson,  Ernst,  1 839-1905 224 

Jansen,   Luplau,   1869- 357 

Jansson,  Eugen,  1862-1915 17,   175,   182-184 

Jardin,  Nicolas  Henri,  1720- 1799 422 

Jarl,  Viggo,  1879- 415 

Jensen,  Alb.,   1847-19 13 428 

Jensen,  C.  A.,  1792-1870 255,  256,  259,  453 

Jensen,  J.  L.,  1 800-1 856 282 

Jensen,   Karl,    185 1- 346 

Jerichau,   Harald,    1851-1878 291 

Jerichau,  Jens  Adolph,  1816-1883 406-408,  409,  619,  629 

Jerichau-Baumann,  Fru  Elizabeth,   1819-1881 280 

Jernberg,  August,  1826-1896 16,   129-130 

Jerndahl,  Aron,   1858- 214 

JerndorjEf,  August,  1846-1906 340,  341-342 

Jespersen,  Henrik,   1853- 357 

Jessen,  Tj^cho,  1870-1921 384 

Johansen,  Otto,  1886- 605 

Johansen,  Viggo,  1851- 25,  330,  33^-333 

Johansson,  Aron,    i860- 225 


654  INDEY  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Johnsson,  Ivar,   1885- 221 

Jonsson,  Einar,  1874- 25 

Jorde,   Lars,    1865- 579 

Jorgensen,   Aksel,    1883- 24,  391 

Jorgensen,  Emil,  1858- 430 

Jorgensen,  Eugen,  1858-1910 430 

Jorgensen,  Sven,  1861- 485,  571,  572-574 

Jorgensen,  Thorvald,  1867- 430 

Josephson,  Ernst,  1851-1906 17,  151-157,  158,  166,  210 

Josephsson,  Erik,    1864- 224 

Juel,  Jens,  1 745-1802 22,  243-245 

Jiirgensen,  Fritz,  1818-1863 312 

Kabell,   Ludvig,    1853- 342 

Kallstenius,  Gottfrid,   1861- 172,   173 

Kampmann,   Hack,   1856-1920 430 

Karsten,  Ludvig,  1876- 32,  605,  607 

Kavli,  Arne,   1878- 31,  608-609 

Kielland,  Kitt3s  1843-1914 465,  485,  527,  55i,  554-555 

Kittelsen,  Theodor,  1857-1913 485,  546-550 

Kjgerschou,  Frederik,   1805-1891 282 

Kjeldrup,  A.  E.,  1826-1869 283 

Klein,  Vilhelm,   1835-1913 428 

Klint,  P.  V.  Jensen,  1853- 431 

Knudsen,  Hans,    1865- 356 

Kobke,  Christen,  1810-1848 

21,  22,  24,  25,  255,  256,  258-260,  264,  406,  453 

Koch,  F.,  1857-1905 430 

Koch,  v.,  1 852-1902 430 

Kolle,  Anton,  1827-1872 311 

Kolsto,  Fredrik,  i860- 485,  559 

Krafft,  David  von,  1655-1724 83,     85 

Krafft,  Per,  the  Elder,  1 724-1 793 98 

Krafft,  Per,  the  Younger,  1 777-1863 105 

Krafft,  Frederik,  1823-1854 311 

Kragh,  Johannes,   1870- 372 

Kratzenstein-Stub,  Christian  Gottlieb,   1 783-1 81 6 246 

Kreuger,  Nils,  1858- 17,  173,  175,  I77-I79>  215 

Krohg,  Christian,  1852- 30,  507-508, 

512-523,  527,  534,  535,  542,  547,  555,  55^,  560,  570,  580,  608 
Krohg,   Oda,    i860- 576-577 


INDKX  TO  ARTISTS  0.S5 

PACK 

Kn.li-,    IVr,    1889- 32 

Kronhcifi;.  Julius,   iS'^o-i()2i 78,    146-148,   216 

Kriiyer,  Pi-tcr  Scvciin,   1 851-1909 

22,  23,  314,  315,  321-327,  414.  515,   543 

Kiiohlcr,  Albert,  1803-1886 256,  266-267 

Kvhn,  Knud,  1880- 391 

Kylin,  Vilhelm,  1 819-1903 25,  307-309 

La  Cour,  Janus,   1 837-1909 313-314 

Lafrensen,  Nils,  the  Younger,  1 737-1 807 15,  92-94 

Lallcrstedt,  Erik,   1864- 228 

Larcheveque,  Pierre  Hubert,  1721-1778 80,   106-107 

Larsen,  Emanuel,   1823- 1859 311 

Larsen,  Johannes,  1867- 23,  386,  387 

Larsen,  Jorgen,  1851-1910 414 

Larsen,  Knud,  1865- 357 

Larsen  Stevns,  Niels,  1864- 373 

Larson,   Marcus,    1825- 1864 130-132 

Larsson,  Carl,  1853-1919 17,  55,  158-165,  166,  167,  222,  226 

Larsson,  Gottfrid,  1875- 221 

Laureus,  Alexander,  1 783-1 823 120-121 

Lehmann,  Edvard,    1815-1892 282 

Levy,  Frederik,  1851- 430 

Lexow-Hansen,  Soren,  1845-1919 625,  630-631 

Liljefors,  Bruno,  i860- 17,  185-188 

Lilljekvist,  Fredrik,   1863- 227 

Lindberg,  Adolf,  1839-1916 221 

Lindberg,  Erik,   1873- 200,  201 

Lindgren,   Gustaf,    1863- 227 

Lindman,   Axel,    1848- 172 

Lindstrom,  Rikard,  1882- 203 

Lochen,  Kalle,   1 865-1 893 571,  574 

Locher,  Carl,  1851-1915 318 

Lorentzen,  Christian  August,  1 749-1 828 245-246,  261 

Lund,   Henrik,    1879- 32,  607-608 

Lund,  L  L.,  1777-1867 255 

Lund,  Jens,  1873- 418 

Lundberg,  Gustav,  1695-1786 15,  87-89,  99 

Lundberg,  Teodor,  1852- 208 

Lundb5'e,  Johan  Thomas,  1818-1848 

25,  302-304,  308,  309,  310,  333 


656  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Lundgren,  Egron,    1815-1875 16,   135 

Madsen,  Viggo,   1885- 39 1 

Magdahl-Nielsen,    1862- 430 

Mailing,  Peder,  1781-1865 423 

Malmsten,  Carl,  1888- 234 

Malmstrom,  August,    1829-1901 16,   138-140 

Mansson,   Filip,    1864- 232 

Marstrand,  Vilhelm,  18 10-1873 

21,  22,  256,  269,  270-279,  280,  286,  289,  315,  316 

Martin,  Elias,  1739-1818 15,   101-103 

Martin,  Johan  Fredrik,   1755-1816 103 

Masreliez,  Louis  Adrien,  1748-1810 79,   114-115 

Melbye,  Anton,   1818-1875 280-281 

Melbye,  Vilhelm,   1824-1882 281 

Meldahl,  Ferdinand,  1827-1908 428 

Meyer,  Ernst,  1797-1861 267-268 

Meytens,  Martin,  the  Elder,  1648-1736 84 

Meytens,  Martin  van,  the  Younger,  1 675-1 770 84 

Michelsen,  Hans,  1789-1859 616-618 

Middelthun,  Julius,  1820-1886.  .33,  613,  619-622,  624,  625,  630,  632 

Milles,  Carl,  1875- 19,  215-220,  230,  234 

Mohl,  Kristian,   1876- 385-386 

Molin,  Johan  Peter,  1814-1873 133,   135 

Moller,  Carl,  1857- 224 

Moller,  I.  P.,  1783-1854 255 

Mols,  Niels  P.,  1859- 353 

Monies,  David,  1812-1894 282 

Morner,   Hjalmar,    1 794-1837 122 

Mortensen,  Carl,  1861- 415 

Miiller,  Adam,  1811-1844 256,  267 

Miiller,  Morten,  1828-1911 471-472 

Munch,  Edvard,  1863- 13,  27,  30,  31-32,  34,  451, 

514-515,  529,  572,  574,  576,  580-591,  605,  606,  607,  609,  633 

Munch,  Jacob,   1 776-1 839 450-451,  452 

Munthe,  Gerhard,  1849- 

...27,  30,  480,  485,  507,  532,  534-541,  551,  572,  595,  600,  602 

Munthe,  Ludvig,  1841-1896 29,  478-480,  534,  542,  557 

Munthe-Siberg,   Anna,    1854- H2 

Naur,  Albert,  1889- 39 1 

Nerman,  Einar,  1888- 204 


INDI'lX  TO  ARTISTS  657 

i'y\(;i-; 

Nnmi.inn,    Carl.    iS,.!,mH()I 2H1 

Nielsen,  Anialclus,    iHjS     2<j,  47'j,  480-48.5 

Nielsen,  Anne  Marie  Carl,  i  H()]     415 

Nielsen,  Ejnar,    1872  - 2.^  :]Hn-i,H2 

Nielsen,  Kai,  1882- 25,  417-418 

Niss,  Thorvald,    1 842-1905 317-.518,  ji'j 

Norilcnbcrfi,   Bcngt,    1 822-1902 128 

Nordstrom,  Karl,  1855- I7.   158,   175,   176-177,  21s 

Norlind,  Ernst,  1877- 20,5 

Norregaard,  Asta,  1853- 485 

Norrman,  Herman,  1864- 1906 184 

Norstedt,   Reinhold,    1843-1911 141-142 

Notice,  Berndt,  1440-15 17 54,  55 

Nyrop,  Martin,   1849-192 1 25,  26,  431-434 

Nystrom,  Axel,  the  Elder,  1793-1868 121,   132 

Odegaard,  Hans,  1876- 604 

Olrik,  H.,   1830-1890 288 

Onsager,   Soren,   1878- 31,  610 

Ostberg,  Ragnar,   1866- 19,   168,  232-234 

Osterman,  Bernhard,   1870- 198-201 

Osterman,  Emil,  1870- 198-201 

Ottesen,  O.  D.,  1816-1892 312 

Palm,  Gustaf  Vilhelm,  1810-1890 124,   158 

Palmstedt,  Erik,   1 741-1803 85 

Pasch,  Lorens,  the  Younger,  1733- 1805 99 

Pauelsen,  Erik,   1 749-1 790 245 

Pauli,  Georg,   1855- 166,  167-169,  196,  226,  234 

Pauli,   Hanna,    1864- 169-170 

Paulsen,  Julius,  i860- 25,  349-351 

Pedersen,  Viggo,  1854- 364,  371-372 

Pedersen,  Vilhelm,   1 820-1 859 311 

Pedersen-Dan,    1859-    415 

Pederson,  Ole,  1856-1898 357 

Percy,  Arthur  C :  son,  1886- 205 

Peters,   Carl,    1822-1899 411,  413 

Petersen,  Anna,  1 845-1910 335 

Petersen,  Carl,  1874- 431 

Petersen,  Ove,  1 830-1 892 428 

Petersen,   Rud.,   1871- 357 

Petersen,   Thorolf,    1858- 357 


658  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Petersen,  Vilhelm,  1830-1913 429 

Peterson,   Ludvig,   1853- 228 

Peterssen,  Eilif,  1852- 30,  465,  485,  486-491,  493,  535,  551 

Pettersson,  Axel,   1868- 221 

Petzholdt,  Frederik,  1 805-1 838 256,  266 

Philipsen,  Theodor,   1840-1920 25,  333-334 

Pilo,  Karl  Gustav,  1711-1793 21,  96-98,  241 

Precht,   Burchardt,    1651-1738 48,  68,  73-74 

Qvarnstrom,  Carl  Gustaf,  18 10-1867 133 

Rafael-Radberg,  Eric,    1881- 221 

Raf n,  Aage,  1 890- 43 1 

Rasmussen,  Carl,  1 841-1893 318 

Rehn,  Jean  Erik,  1 7 1 7-1 793 96 

Repholtz,  Albert,    1863- 357 

Revold,   Axel,    1887- 612 

Ring,  Lauritz,   1854- 24,  25,  353-356 

Roed,  Holger,  1846-1874 291-292 

Roed,  Jorgen,  1808-1888 256,  260-263,  269,  331,  342,  383 

Rohde,  Johan,   1856- 374 

Rohde,  N.  F.,  1816-1886 282 

Rorbye,  Martinus,  1803- 1848 256,  260-262 

Rosen,  Anton,   1859- 430 

Rosen,  Georg  von,  1843- 143-146,  201 

Rosenberg,  Edvard,  1858- 201 

Rosenstand,  Vilhelm,   1838-1915 316 

Roslin,  Alexander,  17 18-1793 15,  89-92,   100 

Rude,    Olaf,    1886- '.  .  .    391 

Rump,   Gotfred,    1816-1880 309-310 

Rusti,    Olav,    1850- 485 

Rydberg,  Gustav,    1835- 141 

Saabye,  August,  1823-1916 411,  413 

Sager-Nelson,   Olof,    1868-1896 195-196 

Salmson,  Hugo,   1 843-1 894 i57>   166 

Salto,  Axel,    1889- 39i 

Sandberg,  Johan  Gustav,  1 782-1854 47 

Sandberg,   Gustaf,    1876- 221,  232 

Sandels,  Gosta,  1887-1919 18,  205 

Scharff,  William,   1886- 24,  391 

Scheel,   Signe,   1 860- 57 1 .  574 

Scheffel,  Johan  Henrik,  1 690-1 781 85 


I 


INDEX  TO  Airi'ISTS  659 

i'A(;ii: 

Schiudto,  Erik,   1(849-1909 430 

SchlcMsncr,  Cliristian,  18 10-1882 282 

SchlirlukruU,  Johan,   1866- 3S7 

Schmidt,  Alfr.,  1858- .HS 

Scholander,  Fredrik  Villiclm,  181 6-1 881 i  j2-i jj 

Schoiibcrg,  Torsten,  1882- 204 

Scliou,  Karl,  1870- 388 

Schou,  L.  A.,  1838-1867 288-291 

Schou,  P.  A.,  1844-1914 346 

Schouboe,  Henrik,  1876- 384 

Schroder,  Georg  Engelhard,  1 684-1 750 85 

Schultz,  Julius,    185 1- 414 

Schultzberg,  Anshelm,  1862- 18,   172 

Schwartz,  Frands,  1850-1917 321 

Seligmann,    Georg,    1866- 357 

Sergei,  Johan  Tobias,  1740-1814 

16,  34,  95,  103,  106-113,  116,  163,  616 

Siegumfeldt,  Herman,  1833-1912 300-301 

Simonsen,  Niels,   1807-1885 282 

Sinding,   Elisabeth,    1846- 485 

Sinding,  Otto,  1842-1909 465,  480,  485,  604 

Sinding,   Sigmund,    1875- 604 

Sinding,  Stephan,  1846-1922 33,  614,  625-628 

Sjoberg,  Axel,   1866- 196 

Skanberg,  Carl,  1850-1883 153,   158 

Skeibrok,   Mathias,   1851-1896 ".  .  .625,  628-630,  632 

Skovgaard,  Joakim,  1856- 24,  25,  361-371,  372,  373,  527 

Skovgaard,  Niels,  1858- 24,  361-371,  372,  373,  416 

Skovgaard,  Peter  Christian,  1817-1875 

25,  304-307,  309,  310,  313,  361,  363,  372,  373,  416 

Skredsvig,  Christian,  1854- 493,  509,  527,  542-546,  551 

Slott-Moller,  Agnes,  1862- 374-377 

Slott-Moller,  Harald,  1864- 374-377 

Smidth,  Hans,  1839-1917 , 301 

Smith,   Vilhelm,   1867- 201 

Sodermark,  Olof  Johan,   1790-1848 122-123,   125 

Sohlberg,  Harald,  1869- 31,  593,  595-597 

Somme,  Jacob  Kielland,  1862- 485 

Sondrup,  Just.  Nielsen,  1873- 415 

Sonne,  Jorgen,   1801-1890 269,  293-295,  351,  426 


660  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Soot,  Eyolf,  1859- 564-566 

Sorensen,  C.  F.,  1818-1879 281 

Sorensen,  Henrik,   1882- 32,  612 

Sorensen,   Jorgen,    1 861-1894 571-572 

Sparre,  Louis,  1863- 198 

Stein,  Theobald,  1829-1901 41 1,  413 

Stenberg,  Emerik,  1873- 201 

Stenersen,  Gudmund,   1863- 571,  575 

Stenhammar,  Ernst,  1859- 228 

Stoltenberg,    Mathias,    1799-1871 27,  452-453 

Stofck,  H.  B.,  1839- 25,  428,  429 

Strandman,  Otto,  1871- 221 

Strom,  Halfdan,   1863- 566-570 

Stiller,  Friedrich  August,  1800-1865 133 

Sundt-Hansen,  Carl,  1841-1907 473,  475,  476-479,  524 

Svarstad,  A.  C,  1869- 610 

Svedlund,  Pelle,  1865- 201 

Svor,  Anders,  1864- 632 

Swane,  Sigurd,  1879- 24,  391 

Syberg,  Fritz,  1862- 23,  25,  388-389,  390,  391 

Tagtstrom,  David,  1894- 205 

Tannics,  Marie,   1854- 57i)  574 

Taraval,  Guilliaume  Thomas  Raphael,  the  Elder,  1 701-1750.  .  . 

80,  82,   162,   163 

Tegner,  Hans,   1853- 345 

Tegner,  Rudolph,    1873- 415 

Tempelman,  Olof,  1 746-1 816 114 

Tengbom,  Ivar,  1878- 235-236 

Tessin,  Nikodemus,  the  Elder,  1615-1681 67,  68,  73,  80,  81 

Tessin,  Nikodemus,  the  Younger,  1654- 1728 

48,  73-77,  80,  81,  96,  121,   162 

Tetens,  Vilhelm,  1871  or  1872- 384 

Thaulow,  Fritz,    1847- 1906 

30,  451,  465,  507-512,  527,  534,  535,  542,  556,  560,  570,  57i>  572 

Thegerstrom,  Robert,  1857-1919 166,   172,   175 

Therkildsen,  M.,   1850- 334 

Thiele,  Anton,  1838-1902 335 

Thies,  Axel,   i860- 345 

Thomsen,  Carl,   1847-1912 343^  344 

Thorenfeld,  Anton,  1839-1907 3^3 


INDFA'  TO  y\RTISTS  661 

i'A(;i'; 
rh()r\;il(lscii,    l>citcl,    1770-1844 16,   21, 

27,  .u>  K'O,  122,  245,  24O,  247,  24.S,  24-;,  2f)7,  .v;^4".^  4"^'. 

40S,  411,  413,  425,  426,  4S'>,  4SI,  (>i(K  (>\7,  ^)iS,  ()!<;,  620,   623 

Tliiira,    ivaurids,    1 706-1  7S<) 421 

'rii\ji;osen,  Riulolf,  1880    32,  612 

Thjlstiup,  (jcorg,   1884- 41 8 

Tidemand,  Adolf,   1814-1876 27,   2<j,   454- 

462,  472,  47.^.  475,  476,  477,  47<^  4'^H,  S24,  S2<j,  S7.S.  619,  628 

Torneman,  Axel,   1880- 18,  204-205,  234 

Torsteinson,  Torstein,   1876    6(Xj 

Troili,  Uno,  1815-1875 125-127 

Trulson,  Anders,  1 874-1  gi  i 203 

Tuxen,  Laurits,  1853- 314,  315,  319-321 

Tvede,  Gotfred,  1863- 430 

Uchermann,  Karl,  1855- 485,  527 

Ulfsten,   Nicolai,    1854-1885 527,   555 

Utne,  Lars,  1 862- 63 1 

Utzon-Franck,  Einar,    1888- 418 

Vallee,  Jean  de  la,  1620-1696 67,  68 

Vallee,  Simon  de  la,  d.  1642 68 

Vedel,  Herman,   1875- 384 

Vermehren,  Frederik,  1823-igio 22,  297,  300,  382,  409 

Vigeland,  Emmanuel,   1875- 637,  638 

Vigeland,  Gustav,  1869- 27,  33,  589,  614,  632-644 

Vik,  Ingebrigt,  1867- 644-645 

Visdal,  Jo,  1861- 632 

Wagner,  Fru  Olga,  1873- 416-417 

Wagner,   Siegfried,    1874- 416,   417 

Wahlberg,   Alfred,    1834-1906 16,   140-141,   166 

Wahlbom,  Karl,   1810-1858 125 

Wahlman,   Lars,    1870- 234-235 

Wallander,  Alf,   1862-1914 196,  221,  222 

Wallander,  Gerda,    i860- 196-197 

Wallin,  David,  1876- 201 

Wandel,    Sigurd,    1875- 384-385 

Warming,  Christof^er,  1865- 430 

Wegmann,  Bertha,  1848- 335 

Weie,  Edvard,  1879- 24,  391 

Wenck,  Henri,  185 1- 430 

Wennerberg,  Gunnar,  1863-1914 222 


662  INDEX  TO  ARTISTS 

PAGE 

Wentzel,  Nils  Gustav,  1859- 561-564,  566,  573 

Werenskiold,  Dagfin,  1892- 30 

Werenskiold,  Erik,  1855- 29,  30,  479,  485,  507-508,  519, 

523-534,  535,  542,  546,  548,  551,  557,  575, .593,  595,  600,  602 

Wergeland,  Oscar  Arnold,   1844-1910 485 

Wertmiiller,  Adolf  Ulrik,   1751-1812 15,   100,   lOi 

Westin,  Fredrik,  1 782-1862 121 

Westman,  Carl,  1866- 19,  230-232 

Wetlesen,  Wilhelm,  1871- 604 

Wexelsen,  Christian,   1830-1883 472 

Wickenberg,  Per  Gabriel,  1812-1846 123-124 

Wilhelmson,   Carl,    1866- 17,    197-198 

Wilhjelm,  Jobs.,  1868- 356 

Willumsen,  Jens  Ferdinand,  1863-.  .23,  24,  25,  26,  377-380,  382,  416 

Winge,  Marten  Eskil,   1 825-1 896 138 

Wold-Torne,  Oluf,  1867-1919 31,  597,  600-603 

Zacho,  Christian,  1843-1913 317,  318 

Zahrtmann,  Kristian,   1843-1917 

23,  31,  335-341,  349,  364,  386,  575,  597,  600,  603,  611 

Zetterwall,  Helgo,  1831-1907 223 

Zorn,  Anders  Leonard,  1860-1920 17,   176,   188-195 


%\^ri~. 


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